Swachh Bharat: Nellore bags 16th place at national-level

Nellore: The district bagged first place in making villages and towns Open-Defecation Free (ODF) with 87.66 pc of marks in the state and achieved sixteenth place in India. Officials of Swachh Bharat Mission announced it, said the District Collector R Mutyala Raju.

He also informed that district administration is going to conduct ‘Atmagowravam Deeksha’ from October 2nd to create awareness among the villagers on usage of toilets. Speaking to the media at his camp office here on Wednesday, the Collector said that they had achieved the target with coordination and cooperation of all government departments, legislators, voluntary organisations and local bodies.

Highlights:

• Collector says they had received communication that district stands first in AP and achieved 16th place across the country
• Atmagowravam deeksha is going to be started from Oct 2 as a sustainability component of the programme

‘It is a proud moment for the district as it gained the first place in the state and 16th place across the country in ODF. 679 districts across the country and 13 districts in the state have competed in the programme,’ said Mutyala Raju. West Godavari, Krishna districts bagged second and third places in the state, he added. He also explained that the district administration had faced many difficulties in enrolling data of 2.34 per cent of household toilets with server and Aadhar card issues.

Otherwise, the district would have got better position across the country and he said they had constructed 3,22,107 toilets across the district. ‘56,303 toilets were constructed from October 14, 2014 to June 2016. Around 940 gram panchayats have announced as ODF across the district.

We are very thankful to the authorities who supported the programme,’ Collector said. He also informed that they would visit villages under Atmagowravam programme. Superintending Engineer of RWS RV Krishna Reddy, Programme Coordinator Susmitha Reddy and others were present.