World Toilet Day: Mamata Banerjee asks people to eradicate menace of open defecation

Kolkata: On the occasion of World Toilet Day, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asked people to eradicate the menace of open defecation.

Banerjee said 11 districts of the state have become open defecation free (ODF).

"On #WorldToiletDay today, let us pledge to eradicate the menace of open defecation. Our states flagship programme, #MissionNirmalBangla, has been very successful," Banerjee wrote on her Twitter handle this morning.

She said "As of May, 2018, 11 districts, 33,261 villages, 2,621 gram panchayats and 255 blocks in the state have become #ODF."

The Mission Nirmal Bangla initiated by West Bengal government endeavours to achieve the larger objective of reduction in child mortality and morbidity, overall mortality and morbidity by reducing chances of water-borne and fecal- borne diseases due to prevalence of open defecation.

World Toilet Day is an official United Nations international observance day on November 19 to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis.