Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday announced that as many as 67 lakh individual household and 5 lakh community toilets will be built by the end of 2019 as part of the government’s target to make the country open defecation free.
Expressing concerns on the issues related to sanitation, he emphasised on the target of making India open defecation free (ODF) by bringing about a change in public mannerism, both in rural and urban areas across the country.
“Besides defecation, management of solid waste has also erupted as an issue. And to counter it a comprehensive scientific methodology must be introduced,” Puri said at a workshop on ‘Swachh Survekshan-2019’ organised for the civic bodies in the capital.
As per the regulatory guidelines issued by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on January 15 this year, the waste segregation — wet waste (biodegradable), dry waste (non-biodegradable), and domestic hazardous waste — is the responsibility of those who generate it. However, the new regulations have been imposed only in a few colonies of the national capital.
Speaking at the workshop, he also said that with projects like smart poles, WiFi, solar tree and ideation centres at Connaught Place, which have been taking care of citizens’ needs, “NDMC has accomplished a landmark”.
Conveying the attributes of scientific management of solid waste and its exceeding popularity among various cities, he added that its adoption has increased from 73 cities in 2016 to 4,203 cities in 2018 and will cover all the cities of country by 2019.
