Venkaiah pats state for Swachh record

Visakhapatnam: Under the Swachh Vidyalaya Initiative, 4.17 lakh toilets were constructed in 2.61 lakh elementary and secondary government schools in a short span of one year from August 2014 to August 2015, ensuring that every government school has separate functional toilets for girls and boys, said Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu.

He was addressing students at a meeting held at Queens Marry Girls High School in I Town on Friday after the launch of Surya Sujala Dhaara and Haritha Bio-Toilets built by Social Awareness Newer Alternatives (SANA).

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Highlights:

• Says AP constructed 3,33,554 individual household latrines as against the set target of 1,93,426
• The Union Minister launches Haritha bio-toilets
• Says 4.17 lakh toilets have been built under Swachh Vidyalaya scheme for boys and girls schools

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The Union Minister said 13.58 crore children in government schools have access to gender segregated toilets and SANA had shown the way in social entrepreneurship through their innovative design of bio-toilets to take forward the safe sanitation in urban India.

“I am very happy to note that the focus on improving the condition of school toilets for girls, a much-needed impetus to motivate girls to remain in school. The SANA becomes a role model for more such NGOs to take up the mantle of social entrepreneurship in the sanitation sector,” he said.

The Union Minister said that SANA’s contributions helped Andhra Pradesh becoming one of the first Open Defecation-Free (ODF) States in the country and congratulated the State government and all 110 local bodies and municipal corporations for having become an Open Defecation-Free State in respective urban areas, three years before the completion of the Mission period.

He said that against the Mission target of constructing 1,93,426 Individual Household Latrines in Andhra Pradesh, 3,33,554 units have been constructed.

He hoped that after achieving the ODF that all possible steps would be taken to achieve the goals of solid waste management too, to become a true Swachh State ensuring that all 3,455 wards in the State are covered under cent per cent door- to-door collection.

He requested that Collectors and municipal commissioners to involve actively in the thematic drives being carried out each fortnight and in the Swachh Survekshan launched in January, 2016, to assess the status of sanitation and solid waste management in 73 major cities in the country, Vizag and Vijayawada cities ranked 5 and 23 respectively.

He again patted SANA Managing Trustee Sanchaita Gajapathi Raju for providing drinking water through SANA Surya Sujala Dhaara and Haritha Bio-Toilets in 12 girls schools and 20 villages in Vizag district.

Local MLA Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar welcomed the gathering and MP K Hari Babu, Municipal Commissioner M Harinarayanan were also present.