(ET)
The government machinery in Uttar Pradesh is gearing up for a massive exercise of building 20 lakh toilets every month till this October 2 to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) status for the state a year ahead of a national deadline. This would involve building nearly 74 lakh toilets in rural areas and about six lakh toilets in urban areas – the state is looking at executing the latter through Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. If the state is able to execute this task, government officials say it will be a complete turn around journey for Uttar Pradesh – from lagging behind as among the two worst performing states which threatened to derail the Prime Minister’s October 2019 national deadline, to becoming the top performer in last one year which could enable the country to turn ODF six months early by March 2019. “As the state with the biggest job at hand on toilet construction is now showing great speed, the national target is achievable ahead of time in 2019 “As the state with the biggest job at hand on toilet construction is now showing great speed, the national target is achievable ahead of time in 2019,” a senior government official told.
