Tiruchi to be soon declared open-defecation free

November 28, 2016 08:52 pm | Updated November 29, 2016 09:17 am IST - TIRUCHI:

 A meeting to sensitise local community on the use of community toilet at Pensioners Street in Golden Rock zone in Tiruchi on Monday.

A meeting to sensitise local community on the use of community toilet at Pensioners Street in Golden Rock zone in Tiruchi on Monday.

Tiruchi Corporation is pulling out all the stops to retain its Swachh Bharat ranking and as a major step in that direction is working towards declaring the city open-defecation free by the end of this year.

The Corporation has issued a public notification inviting objections, if any, within 15 days to the city being declared as open defecation free.

Corporation Commissioner N. Ravichandran said that all necessary measures are being put in place to prevent open defecation. Apart from providing individual and public toilets, the civic body has also taken up an awareness campaign among residents on using toilets.

The civic body has also reached out to the student community to spread the message. Students of all city schools have pledged to use only toilets and have also given undertakings that they were using toilets both at home and school. Similarly, pledges have also been obtained from self help groups.

Mr. Ravichandran said a few complaints were received following the public notification issued a couple of days back and officials were visiting the spots to ascertain the ground situation. The problem was more of people not using toilets, rather than accessibility or availability of toilets, he said.

Remedial measures would be initiated on all complaints following which a final notification would be issued.

The city, he pointed out, had stood second and third in the Swachh Bharat rankings released in 2015 and February 2016 respectively.

“We are keen on retaining the rankings but the rankings now would cover more number of cities this time,” Mr.Ravichandran said. Making the city open-defecation free would be an important factor.

The Corporation has built about 2000 individual household toilets with government subsidy in recent months. The city has about 399 community toilets, maintained by community groups, and 59 public toilets. Sensitisation programmes are being continuously organised with all assistant commissioners and sanitary inspectors being involved.

On Monday, a rally was taken out at East Boulevard Road wherein students pledged to use only toilets. A sensitisation meet was also held for stakeholders of the community toilet at Pensioners Street in Golden Rock zone to drive home the message of the use and proper maintenance of the toilet.

The civic body is also taking efforts to popularise the Swachhata app to get the feedback from the residents.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.