The Karnataka government on Sunday declared five districts and 20 taluks as open defecation free.
With the districts of Bengaluru Rural, Bengaluru Urban, Mangaluru (Dakshina Kannada), Udupi and Kodagu, as well as 20 taluks and 1,000 gram panchayats being declared open defacation free, 64% of the state now has sufficient sanitation coverage, the government said. .
Officials from the five districts to achieve the target were felicitated by the government on Sunday. The government also said that eight other districts have already achieved 70% sanitation.
“Karnataka has 85,14,554 rural households spread across 30 districts, and 64% of them have sanitation coverage now, better than the national average of 55.23%,” a statement said.
It also said that the UNICEF had played a key role in helping the state achieve sanitation coverage.
Mysuru was declared open defecation free earlier in September, and is not part of the state government list.
Setting a deadline of October 2 for declaring seven districts open defecation free, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj HK Patil had told The Hindu in September, “The aim of the government is to make Karnataka an open defecation free State by October 2, 2018.”
According to the report, facing a target three years ago of 55 lakh toilets to be constructed, Karnataka built 25 lakh toilets and aims to complete another 12 lakh by the 2016.