The movement to make Koppal district open defecation-free by the end of March 2017 has been gaining momentum, with elected representatives and officials visiting villages to motivate people to construct individual toilets on their own.
Koppal Zilla Panchayat president S.R. Nagralli, zilla panchayat chief executive officer R. Ramachandran, presidents of taluk and gram panchayats, and officials have been regularly visiting villages early in the morning.
During the visits, the elected representatives and officials are not leaving no stone unturned to persuade the people to extend their cooperation in making the district open-defecation free. Mr. Ramachandran, who has taken a keen interest in the issue, has been explaining about the benefits of a toilet in leading a healthy life.
He has also been focusing on schoolchildren, giving the example of Mallamma, who resorted to hunger strike to pressure her parents to agree to construct a toilet, to take up the issue with their parents.
As per a baseline survey conducted in 2002, around 3.5 lakh toilets had to be constructed in the district to make it open-defecation free. After carrying out a campaign between 2012-13 and 2015-16, around two lakh toilets had been constructed.
To ensure that the remaining places were also covered within the current financial year, the zilla panchayat has been making all out efforts.
“In the first phase we identified around 40,000 members of the self-help groups and motivated them to construct toilets, of which 26,000 have given their consent. Meanwhile, during inspections, officials found that there has been no problem in constructing 33,000 toilets. We want to complete them at the earliest and adopt a similar campaign all over the district,” he added.
