The South and East Delhi municipal corporations on Monday declared the areas under their jurisdictions as “open defecation-free” as they marked the third anniversary of the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission.
At an event attended by cricketer Gautam Gambhir and Paralympic Games medal winner Deepa Malik, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) Mayor Kamaljeet Sehrawat said that the civic body had made available one toilet every 500 metres, which was as per the Swachh Bharat Mission guidelines.
Month-long campaign
The guidelines refer to areas where households don’t have their own toilets and community toilets are needed, as well as commercial areas, where there should be a toilet every kilometre.
The Mayor said that 1,099 toilet complexes, including 250 mobile toilet seats, that have a total of 14,475 toilet seats were provided by the SDMC.
Speaking at the event, SDMC commissioner Puneet Kumar Goel said that the number of people forced to defecate in the open had reduced all over the country and that the SDMC would work towards reducing it to zero. He said the SDMC would launch a month-long campaign to get people to use the newly-built toilet complexes.
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) too was declared open defecation-free, with Mayor Neema Bhagat making the announcement at the headquarters. She also launched a fortnight-long sanitation drive in east Delhi.
The North Delhi Municipal Corporation, which has the deadline of December 15 to go open defecation-free, launched a special fortnight-long drive as well. As per a statement, the civic body has deployed 250 sanitation workers in each of its 104 wards.
The workers will carry out routine cleaning in the morning and then dedicate the remainder of their day to clean one particular area. One market in each ward would be washed with water every day as well.
The New Delhi Municipal Council, which was declared open defecation-free last year, observed Gandhi Jayanti and the anniversary of Swachh Bharat Mission’s launch by releasing a booklet on ‘Segregation of Waste at Source and giving away Swachhta Awards to organisations.