Rural Kerala was today declared 'Open Defecation Free', becoming the first ODF state among the densely populated in the country.
Making the declaration at a function here, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan urged the Centre to take steps to stop open defecation on railway tracks to ensure that the ambitious programme aimed at making Kerala a total ODF state was realised.
With this, Kerala has become the first ODF state among densely populated states in the country, he later said in a facebook post.
In his address at the function, Vijayan said setting up toilets in all households was not enough to make the state total ODF and immediate steps should be taken to stop the defecation by railway passengers on tracks.
Common toilets should be set up in urban areas to meet the demands of lakhs of migrant labourers in the state while implementing the urban ODF initiative, scheduled to be completed by March next year, he said.
"In the present circumstances, our aim for a total Open Defecation Free Kerala cannot be realised, even if toilets are set up in all households across the state," Vijayan said.
For this, Centre's intervention was needed to stop the defecation by railway passengers on ground. Otherwise, the state could not achieve its aim of a total ODF state, he said.
Vijayan said though Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to come to the state to declare Kerala as ODF, the plan was changed as the PMO informed about some inconvenience in the PM being present here.
He also urged the local bodies to continue their efforts to make people use the toilets and ensure effective implementation of the programme.
About 1.75 lakh toilets have been constructed in rural Kerala including critical areas like remote Tribal hamlets and water-logged areas during the last three months under the ODF programme with state-run Suchitwa Mission as the implementing agency.
The programme got a boost after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, heading the CPI-M led LDF government, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the facebook post, Vijayan also said states with high density of population were facing a severe problem due to lack of proper waste management and toilet facilities, adding Kerala had overcome the challenges successfully. 'Hearty congratulations to Suchithwa mission, all district collectors, Jalanidhi, Local bodies, voluntary and non governmental organisations for the comprehensive and coordinated efforts,' he said.
Besides Vijayan and his cabinet colleagues E Chandrasekharan, Kadakampally Surendran, K K Shylaja, A K Saseendran, Prof C Raveendranath and Mathew T Thomas, opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and Shashi Tharoor MP also took part in the function.
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In a statement, the Ministry of Drinking Water and
Sanitation said, "With this, all 14 districts, 152 blocks, 940 Gram Panchayats and 2,117 villages of the state have been declared free from open defecation."
Kerala is also the largest state so far to have achieved the ODF status, after Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh, it said.
Drinking Water and Sanitation Secretary Parameswaran Iyer assured Kerala of the Centre's support in its efforts to sustain ODF and focus on solid and liquid waste management.
Meanwhile, a Ministry source said three more states -- Gujarat, Haryana and Uttarakhand -- will be announced as ODF soon.
