Karnataka achieves ODF status across the state’s rural areas

BENGALURU: The state government of Karnataka has achieved an ‘open-defecation free’ (ODF) status across the state’s rural areas as promised to the citizens. The Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department, Karnataka, informed that 70.2 lakh households in the rural areas of the state have now been provided with individual toilets, thus reducing incidences of open defecation in the state.

The State Government had initiated this ambitious programme to become an “Open Defecation Free’’ State by 2018, a year ahead of the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. The State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department took this massive campaign for the construction of individual toilets in all the families living in the rural areas of Karnataka. The combined efforts by the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department, along with the citizens of the state has added another feather in the Karnataka success story. Earlier on October 2, Dr. G Parameshwara, Deputy Chief Minister, Karnataka launched Swachhameva Jayate, a rural cleanliness and sanitation campaign that aimed to boost the Swachh Survkekshan Grameen in all the districts with the help of school children.

HD Kumaraswamy, Chief Minister of Karnataka, while Announcing the good news, said, “While we have seen many improvements in the lives of the citizens of Karnataka, the access to a clean, hygienic toilet was a shortfall. Earlier statistics showed only half or one-third of the rural households had individual toilets. I commend the efforts of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department which took this issue very seriously, and in a very short time, has taken the cleanliness and hygiene message to every household in our state, and has achieved ‘open defecation free’ status. Our government has taken the wishes of our beloved people seriously, and this is the proof.”