Hyderabad becomes free of open defecation

The Hyderabad city has become free of open defecation, its civic body said today.
The city received the tag after all its corporators gave an undertaking that their respective wards were open defecation free (ODF).
"The corporators of all 150 wards have given an undertaking that their wards are open defecation free and requested (the civic body) to declare so," the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) said in a statement.
Under the guidance of Telangana's municipal administration and urban development minister K T Rama Rao, the GHMC took various initiatives to control open defecation, it said.
The civic body constructed individual and community toilets and also provided pre-fabricated ones in slums, the statement said.

As a part of the initiative of transforming the city as free of open defecation, the GHMC persuaded about 295 petrol pumps and 390 hotels and restaurant owners to open the toilets at their respective sites for use by the general public, it said.