Within a fortnight, the civic authority has achieved Open Defecation Free double plus status for the city. When Swachh Survekshan 2019 was launched on January 4, 35 cities were announced as ODF+ and seven cities as ODF++. On January 5, the city received the ODF+ certificate from the third party appointed by the central government. The upgrade from ODF+ to ODF++ was done after the third party inspection from January 18-20.
Announcing the achievement, Mayor Bijal Patel said that the central government's team visited the city and inspected the claims of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), to grant the status. This status will help the city get up to 250 points in Swachh Survekshan 2019.
"Out toilets are easily accessible and well maintained with facilitates such as hand dryers, wash basin, soap, ventilation, etc. All the criteria were inspected and we have matched them all," said the mayor.
One of the criteria for achieving ODF++ status is that there must be no open urination in the city. Although the city does not fulfill this criterion, Harshad Solanki, director of solid waste management, justified this by saying that those violating the norms are being penalised. "We are fining those who are caught urinating in open places. There are urinals and toilets across the city as per requirements. Also, all of them have been marked online and one can locate them by simply using Google Maps," said Solanki.
It is to be noted that earlier, the city's upgradation from ODF to ODF+ was also achieved in a time span of 18 days.