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.
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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.
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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.