Kundewadi village in Nashik becomes open defecation free

Nashik: Kundewadi, a small village in Nashik district has become open defecation free (ODF), thanks to efforts made by a local credit society that provided interest free loan to villagers for construction of toilets.

Jagadamba Co-op Credit Society in Kundewadi took a lead and provided advance loan to as many as 155 families since 2013, and now all houses in the village with a total 572 families have a toilet, a press note issued by district information office (DIO) said here on Friday.

Out of 572 families, about 279 of them had this facility before 2013. Out of the remaining 293, 138 house owners used their own finances to construct toilet in the last three years (from 2013-16), while 155 were given interest free loan by the credit society.

According to release, some of the villagers were not keen to have the facility as they had not received government grant of Rs 10,000 (for building toilets) on time.

However, with the help of the village development officer, village panchayat members and intervention of the credit society, they took the loan.

The work of construction of toilets that has been going for last three years, was completed recently and Kundewadi was announced open defecation, the release said.