With 32 village panchayats in Vellore declared free from open defecation on October 2, another 45 villages will join the bandwagon in the first week of November.
M. Manohar Singh, project director of District Rural Development Agency said they had initially fixed a target of 77 villages to be declared open defecation free on October 2 under the State government’s total sanitation campaign.
Of this, nearly 32 had achieved the status. This included Venkatapuram in Vellore block, Salamanatham in Kaniyambadi and Thiruparkadal in Walajah.
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“Steps to make the remaining 45 villages open defecation free will be completed by the first week of November. To achieve this status, there should be no open defecation in villages and every house should have toilets.
We are making it a point to see that every house has a toilet, and people use it,” he said.
Next, the officials will work towards bringing another 70-75 villages to achieve this status by January 26, he added.
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Over a period of 2-3 months
“We are thinking on the lines of taking up 75 villages for a period of two to three months. This way, 75 villages will be declared open defecation free once in a quarter,” he said. There are a total of 743 village panchayats in the 20 blocks of the district.
On Sunday, Collector R. Nanthagopal felicitated the panchayat heads of the 32 villages declared open defecation free. He urged the people to utilise the toilets constructed in the houses. Members of Village Poverty Reduction Committees and women self help group members should ensure that people utilise the toilets and not resort to open defecation. They should put in place measures to prevent open defecation such as imposing fine on violators, he added, a press release said.
“To achieve this status, there should be no open defecation in villages and every house should have toilets”