The Mandya district administration is all set to declare 72 villages as ‘open defecation free’ (ODF) as the residents have all constructed individual toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission’ (SBM).
The Mandya Zilla Panchayat launched a special drive to ensure construction of individual toilets at 1.02 lakh households during 2014–15. Under the drive, residents of 72 villages in all the seven taluks have constructed toilets in their houses, sources at the zilla panchayat told The Hindu.
Open defecation has been strictly banned in 15 villages of Maddur and seven villages of Mandya taluks, sources said. Similarly, all the families in 10 villages in Nagamangala, 14 in K.R. Pet, three in Srirangapatna, seven in Pandavapura and 16 in Malavalli taluks have constructed toilets.
The zilla panchayat has decided to felicitate gram panchayat members, motivators or others, who have played a pivotal role in making the people construct toilets.
Officials of the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj would honour them in their respective gram panchayat offices on Sunday.
The motivators had made the people realise the ill-effects of open defecation through series of programmes, sources said.
