The Mandya Zilla Panchayat on Friday launched a ‘whistle campaign’ to put an end to open defecation.
A team of officials from the zilla panchayat, led by Chief Executive Officer Rohini Sindhuri, visited different villages in the taluk and created awareness among people, who were found answering nature’s call in public places.
While Ms. Sindhuri-led team attempted to create awareness among people in Cheeranahalli, Haluwadi, Thaggahalli, T. Malligere and Pura villages, other officials launched similar programmes in villages in other parts of the district.
Ms. Sindhuri met people and requested them to construct individual toilets. The zilla panchayat had decided to make Mandya district free from open-defecation by the end of 2015 under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), she said and kept on telling the residents of villages she happened to visit.
It was a nice and memorable experience, she told The Hindu.
Some of the women in Pura village told her that they had not constructed toilets because of ‘Vastu’.
“Elderly and men still prefer answering nature’s call in open places,” Ms. Sindhuri said.
Individual toilets were the need of the hour for the safety of women and adolescent girls. Therefore, the zilla panchayat would continue the campaign and motivate people to construct individual toilets, till the district became open defecation free district, she said.
Koppal Model
Koppal district had launched a similar campaign last year. The success of the Koppal Zilla Panchayat had prompted its Mandya counterpart to launch the campaign here, sources said.
The zilla panchayat had launched a drive to provide individual toilets to 1.02 lakh households during 2014–15. Since July last, it had constructed about 80,000 individual toilets across the district. The zilla panchayat plans to achieve the target within the next three months.
