This story is from October 6, 2018

Minister contradicts Yogi Adityanath's ODF deadline, seeks 3 more months

'We Need Time To Meet Toilets' Target As Per 2012 Survey'
Minister contradicts Yogi Adityanath's ODF deadline, seeks 3 more months
UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath (File photo)
LUCKNOW: A day after chief minister Yogi Adityanath said that rural UP would be declared open defecation free by November 30, state panchayati raj minister Bhupendra Singh said that it would take at least three months to construct toilets to meet the target as per 2012 survey baseline.
"We will declare the state ODF on the basis of 2012 survey figures for the time being. Initially, it was decided to declare rural UP ODF by October 2, 2018 but because we are getting a three tier survey carried out to verify claims by districts, and carrying out rectifications where necessary, it will take another three months for ODF declaration," said Singh.
He said that the government is conducting another survey to identify families that were left out of the one in 2012, after which it expects that about 30 lakh to 40 lakh families would be added to the target. The chief minister has directed that all the remaining families should be provided toilets by October 2, 2019, he added.
The minister also said that there has been a drastic reduction in incidence of diseases due to construction of toilets in last one year.
"Acute Encephalitis cases have come down from 2,118 in 2016 to 970 cases in 2018, diarrhoea cases dipped from 2,168 in 2016 to 900 this year while there have been no cases of jaundice so far in 2018," said a senior official.
Singh said that toilet coverage in March 2017 was only 33.75% as there were 19.35 lakh toilets as per 2012 survey. "April 2017 onwards, 1.41 crore toilets have been built and coverage on October 4, 2018 is 97.07%. We have declared 30 districts ODF. We are verifying claims of the remaining and will declare them ODF on the basis of reports and rectifications of shortcomings, if any," said Singh.
Districts that have been declared ODF include Shamli, Bijnore, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Gautam Budh Nagar, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Amroha, Etawah, Kasganj, Hathras, Kaushambi, Moradabad, Mathura, Mahoba, Lalitpur, Auraiya, Shravasti, Bhadohi, Jhansi, Rampur and Mau.
Sources within government, however, do not concur with the decision of declaring the state ODF till each household has access to a toilet. "Declaring the state ODF by using survey data selectively will be misleading," said an official.
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