New Delhi, September 5: At least 5 lakhs community and 67 lakhs individual household toilets will be constructed in New Delhi by the end of 2019. This was said by Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday.
Speaking after inaugurating a workshop on “Swachh Survekshan-2019” for the municipal bodies in New Delhi, Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the civic bodies of the national capital will achieve their physical target of constructing 5 lakhs community and 67 lakhs individual household toilets by the end of 2019. “So far as the Open Defecation Free (ODF) target was concerned, it required the behavioral change of the public at large in rural and urban areas of the country,” he added.
Minister Hardeep Puri further noted that the change had many aspects like gender empowerment, the dignity of girl child and green and clean cities envisioned under the Swachh Bharat Mission. He said, in addition to the construction of toilets, more attention and efforts are required in respect of scientific processing of solid waste Management. He said the Swachhta Mission has now become a mass movement.
The Minister also appreciated that the NDMC has bagged the first position in the category of cities of 1-3 Lakh population and overall fourth position in the country and hoped that it would get the overall first position in the forthcoming Swachhta Survekshan-2019.
Hardeep Puri said that under the Smart City initiatives, the NDMC had achieved many milestones by commissioning various projects like Wi-Fi, Smart Poles, Solar Tree and Ideation Centre at Connaught Place.
Stressing upon the reduction of plastic items in day-to-day life, Member Parliament, Meenakshi Lekhi said that it is the need of the hours to come forward to reduce, reuse and recycle the plastic waste so as to make the planet environment-friendly.
Importantly, the workshop on “Swachh Survekshan-2019”, organized by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) in collaboration with Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, was attended by delegates from all the three civic bodies and Delhi Cantonment Board.