Big B on the line! Soon, you may receive a call from Amitabh Bachchan regarding open defecation

NEW DELHI: Don't be surprised if you receive a call from Amitabh Bachchan asking whether anyone in your family or from village practices open defecation. In its effort to verify whether districts that have achieved Open Defecation Free (ODF) status are actually sustaining it, about 50,000 people will receive prerecorded calls from Bachchan in the next week or 10 days. This will be a pilot project of the drinking water and sanitation ministry.

The number that will receive such calls will be selected randomly from ODF districts. Till now 91 districts and nearly 1.58 lakh villages have achieved ODF status. TOI has learnt that the selected numbers will first get an SMS informing them that they will receive a call from Bachchan. The actor will ask two questions one if anyone of the receiver's family practices open defecation and the other whether anyone in the village does so. The receivers will only need to press 1 for `yes' and 2 for `no'.