Punjab, Haryana among top 8 in building toilets

Syed Ali Ahmed

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 1

Punjab and Haryana are among the top eight states in the country for constructing household toilets and Chandigarh has achieved 100 per cent target of door-to-door solid waste garbage collection under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 2 last year.

Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu announced this today on the eve of completing one year of the mission. He said against the target of constructing 25 lakh household toilets, the construction of 4.64 lakh had been completed and the rest would be ready by 2016.

Naidu said Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan were the top states in respect of construction of individual household toilets.

He said Gujarat had topped the chart by constructing 33,670 toilets, accounting for 64 per cent of the total toilets built in urban areas of the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh (7,244), Punjab (5,677), Karnataka (1,845), Haryana (1,829), Chhattisgarh (1,676), Mizoram (300), Rajasthan (167), Manipur (41) and Uttarakhand (22).

Construction of toilets is yet to begin in five Union Territories of Chandigarh, Anadaman and Nicobar Islands, Daman and Diu, Dadar and Nagar Haveli and Delhi. Besides four north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura, two south Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu have not yet started construction of toilets.

Taking about the solid waste management, the minister said Chandigarh had achieved 100% target of door-to-door collection of the municipal solid.

Chandigarh is followed by Meghalaya (58%), Delhi (52%), Kerala and Manipur (50%), Telangana (48%), Karnataka (34%), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (30%), Gujarat (28%) and Goa and Haryana (25%).