New era in Telangana with ODF-+ status: KTR

Hyderabad: Municipal Administration and IT Minister K T Rama Rao on Monday claimed that a new era has begun in rural development with the Open Defecation Free (ODF) programme. He expressed happiness that Telangana was in the forefront of open defecation free with 96.74 per cent plus villages following it.

In his Twitter handle, the minister asked which State is first in the ODF programme in the country. He said that the State is doing well in ODF with almost cent per cent as Tamil Nadu achieved just 35.59 per cent ODF according to records. KTR attributed the ODF rank to the vision of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. "The leadership of KCR is miles ahead of Tamil Nadu which is ranked second at 35.59 percent", he said.

The Swachh Bharat Mission of the Centre has announced that of 14,200 villages in Telangana 13,737 were declared ODF, Rao claimed. He said that the significant development was due to more facilities and infrastructure in these villages. "The Panchayat Raj department officials have uploaded the details to a related website of the Swachh Bharat Mission and we got first rankings in ODF," he explained.

The minister said of the 582,903 villages across the country only 26,138 got ODF-plus rank. Of these Telangana gets a major share with 13,737 villages declared ODF which puts it at 52 per cent at national level.

The minister said that the State will achieve 100 per cent ODF with more facilities in villages in future. Rao said that 'Palle Pragathi' has heralded a new era in villages by achieving open defecation-plus status through the Centre. The State is making rapid strides and ODF-plus is another feather in its cap to cleanse the village environment. Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao expressed happiness at the ODF achievement at national level.