Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met school children during Sarva Dharma Prarthana Sabha at Gandhi Smriti on the occasion of the 149th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
While addressing the Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention (MGISC), Prime Minister Modi stated that the sanitation coverage in rural areas has increased rapidly after his government came to power in 2014.
He also added that until now as many as 25 states of the country have declared themselves open defecation free (ODF).
"The result of this "Janbhavna" is that the radius of rural sanitation before 2014 was approximately 38 per cent, but today it is 94 per cent. The number of ODF villages has surpassed five lakhs. Twenty-five states of India have declared themselves free from open defecation," he said.
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi also paid floral tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Raj Ghat on the occasion.
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