VMC plans to make Vadodara open defecation free within a month

VADODARA: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation aims to make the city open defecation free (ODF) within a month, VMC Commissioner H S Patel has said.

"It is our resolve to do so within a month," Patel told PTI here yesterday.

The civic body, through a notification issued earlier, sought objections and suggestions from people for making all the 19 wards of the city free from open defecation, he said.

The notification period ended on April 28. Nobody objected to it while several people made suggestions, he said.

"Against the initial plan of having 18,198 personal toilets, 20,555 have already been constructed in the city," Patel said.

"We have also built 82 public and community toilets and work is in progress on 784 personal toilets," he said.

The VMC has also launched an awareness drive in the city in this regard.

Meanwhile, 5 of the total of 19 wards in the city, making up one-fourth of the city, have already become open defecation free, another VMC official said.

The standing committee, the supreme decision making body of VMC, at its meeting held on April 28, also cleared a proposal for the process to declare these five wards free from open defecation.

The state government will be requested to declare these five wards as ODF, VMC's standing committee chairperson Dr Jignishaben Sheth said.