Hyderabad: The goal of making urban areas in the state free of open-defecation still remains a distant dream for Telangana. Only 15 municipalities have been able to achieve the precious open-defecation-free (ODF) tag until now — among them are Achampet, Suryapet, Ibrahimpatnam, Shadnagar, Sathupally, Siricilla and Siddipet.
Several major corporations and municipalities, including the GHMC, have not achieved the ODF tag and have missed several deadlines. The corporations and municipalities had planned toilets in every household, besides having community toilets.
The government’s plan was to build 83,039 toilets in 42 municipal corporations and municipalities so as to make urban areas ODF in Telangana. But it built only 23,561 toilets so far, and there is still a deficit of 59,477.
Earlier, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had launched the ambitious Swachh Hyderabad-Swachh Telangana scheme in May of 2015 by latching it onto the Centre’s own Swachh Bharat Mission.
The aim was to make urban areas in Telangana free of open-defecation by June of 2016. The works commenced accordingly, but slow pace was why the target could be achieved only in 15 urban areas.
Works gathered speed for a while after IT minister K.T. Rama Rao was given charge of municipal administration last March. He devised an action plan to speed up matters, but it helped only to an extent so far.
“We have fixed timelines for all urban local bodies to achieve ODF by March 31, 2017. ODF protocol and third-party validation on ODF claim will be processed during April-May 2017. The delay in meeting targets was due to lack of periodic monitoring and this deficiency has been rectified,” KTR said.
He added: “A road map to achieve ODF has been sent to all urban local bodies. Municipal commissioners have been directed to report progress regularly. Deputed officers have to visit towns once a week and brief the progress to government.”
