All panchayats in Thrissur to become ODF by Monday, urban areas to achieve target by mid-Oct

THRISSUR: Thrissur is all set to become the first district in the state with all its panchayats declared as open defecation free (ODF).
A formal declaration to this effect would be made on Monday morning in each panchayats and at the district level in the afternoon, the Minister for Tourism A C Moideen said. Most of the panchayas have already completed the construction of toilets to all the households and the remaining one or two are expected to achieve the target by Monday, according to the district panchayat Sheela Vijayakumar, who is spearheading the campaign for ODF.
As per official reports out of the 86 panachayats in the district 75 have already achieved the ODF targets. Out of the 11 remaining panchayats, eight would achieve the target by today and tomorrow, Sheela said. Three panchayats Athirappilli, Varantharappilli and Padiyur which were lagging behind are also expected to become ODF by Sunday or Monday. Chief Secretary S M Vijayanand , who had set making Kerala ODF as his priority when he took over the post, said Thrissur and Kannur were topping the race to become the first district to have achieved the ODF targets. If Thrissur is getting all the panchayats declared as ODF by Monday, then they will be the first, as Kannur might require some more days, Vijayanand said.
The people’s representatives and the officials had worked together to achieve the targets, he said. Even though the ODF was a project of the BJP-run Central government, the LDF-ruled Kerala had also taken the project very seriously. According to Vijayanand the beneficiaries are expected to construct the toilets and they would be given Rs 15,400 for each toilet by the local bodies.
Encouraged by the progress in making the rural areas ODF, the state government had decided to advance the deadline for achieving the target in the urban areas from March 31, 2017 to November 1, this year. In Thrissur the six municipalities and the Corporation are yet to achieve the targets as they were working with the earlier fixed deadlines.’
Accordingly 24 more toilets have to be constructed in the Wadakkanchery municipality, 108 toilets in Kunnamkulam, 160 toilets in Chavakkad, 200 in Kodungallur, 32 in Irinjalakkuda and 22 in Chalakudy. The Thrissur Corporation has to construct 335 new toilets to become ODF. "Altogether 963 toilets are to be constructed in the urban areas of the district to make the whole district ODF. This target will also be achieved by October 15,’’ according to R Raviraj, the district level coordinator of the ODF project.