The district administration will organise awareness programmes and contest among college students in Annavasal block to create awareness among the masses about the use of individual toilets, said M. Santhoshkumar, Project Director, District Rural Development Agency.
Presiding over a coordination committee meeting convened at Annavasal near here on Wednesday, he said the block had been identified under the Balanced Growth Fund scheme for eliminating open defecation and the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation would coordinate the programme. He appealed to the people of the village to set up individual toilets in their houses and use the same.
Underlining the role of students in this regard, he said the district administration would organise various competitions such as painting, essay, and elocution among college students to drive home the importance of elimination of open defecation.
R. Rajkumar, District programme coordinator of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, said that one coordinator had been nominated for each village panchayat to mobilise the support of the people in the fight against open defecation. A large number of open fields in the district had turned into open air toilets.
S. Vasumathy, Project Manager, Pudhu Vazhvu Thittam, and K. Ilango, Project Officer, Mahalir Thittam, spoke. They promised support to the fight against open defecation in the block.
