Karnataka has achieved open-defecation free status across the rural areas. To achieve this, the Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department on -World Toilet Day - November 19 have completed construction of over 45 lakh toilets across households.

With this, Karnataka now announced that all the 70.2 lakh rural households have been provided with individual toilets, thus reducing incidences of open defecation .

The State Government had taken up an ambitious programme to become an `Open Defecation Free’ by 2018, a year ahead of the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

A massive campaign for construction of individual toilets in rural Karnataka by the State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department was taken up on a war footing. The concerted effort by the departments together with the citizens has added another feather in the success story.

Announcing this Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said, “While we have seen many improvements in the lives of the citizens of Karnataka, the access to a clean, hygienic toilet was a shortfall. Earlier statistics showed only half or one-third of the rural households had individual toilets. I commend the efforts of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department which took this issue very seriously, and in a very short time, has taken the cleanliness and hygiene message to every household in our state, and has achieved open defecation free status. Our government taken the wishes of our beloved people seriously and this is the proof.”

The Chief Minister also pointed out that while the central government had been pushing for Swacch Bharat and open defecation free, the state had actually taken up these measures proactively and had executed it ahead of time.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Dr G Parameshwara, said, “The government had undertaken a baseline survey and found that there were over 70 lakh rural households, but only about 25 lakh families had their own private toilet. The rest were dependent either on public toilets or were resorting to open defecation. This needed our full and urgent attention. I am glad that the Rural development department has constructed these additional 45+ lakh toilets in a short time.”

Krishna Byre Gowda, the Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, said, “I must really extend my thanks to the people of the state. When our team visited the 6000 plus village panchayats, they gave their full support to the campaign and cooperated with our team. Rural Sanitation is an essential, absolutely fundamental right of our citizens and we are very happy and we have achieved this.

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