“Does anyone know what is open defecation?”
“It’s like using the washroom outside!” replied a boy, wide eyed yet confident. The question was posed by Subha Thakur, Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Urban Development, to a group of children at the Meridian School in Banjara Hills where the ‘One Lakh Hands Campaign’ was launched here on Wednesday.
The campaign aims at reaching out to 100 different schools, both government and private, and over one lakh students in the process in Hyderabad over the next two months through phone calls, mails, meetings and the likes to spread the message of cleanliness in cities.
“We have started this as a pilot project and hope to take it across the country soon as children are the best ambassadors to spread the message of Swachh Bharat and to make it successful, we need to go for a behavioural change. This is everybody’s mission,” said Ms. Thakur.
One crore toilets
to be built
Also in-charge of the project, she extolled the students not to feel shy about telling the other person not to litter. “We have a target of building one crore toilets across the country and the deadline is October 2, 2019 which will be Mahatma Gandhi’s 150{+t}{+h}birth anniversary,” she said.
Ms. Thakur said the Centre was also planning to conduct a comprehensive survey next month to get feedback from citizens on the work done by different governmental agencies. Citizens should give a missed call on 1800 26 72 777, a toll free number and it will be active till January 15, 2016.
Hyderabad is a priority city and one among the 10 chosen for intensification of the urban cleanliness exercise. She was glad that Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) was taking an active part in taking up the campaign, especially in waste segregation.
“We have started distributing red and green waste baskets to households and soon the entire city will be covered,” said E. Sudhakar, Executive Engineer, Solid Waste Management, GHMC. Karuna Gopal, president, Foundation of Futuristic Cities, also spoke on the ocacasion.
Hyderabad is a priority city and one among the 10 chosen for intensification of the urban cleanliness exercise
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