Rajasthan is riding high on defecation radar. 20 cities of Rajasthan have achieved Open Defecation Free (ODF) status.

In a review meeting chaired by local self government (LSG), principal secretary, Manjit Singh, the department officials claimed that 20 out out of 33 cities have become open defecation free.

Moreover, the Rajasthan government has also started allotting ODF certificates to cities for this purpose. As a matter of fact, the Centre minister of urban development, joint secretary, Praveen Prakash had set a deadline for major cities in Rajasthan to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) status by June 30, 2017.

Unfortunately, municipal corporations and local bodies have dismayed the Centre till March 2017. Till date, however, only two cities namely Dungarpur and Deoli were declared as ODF by the Centre.

“To save time local bodies were allowed to purchase required garbage collecting vehicles and other equipments on base rates set by the department. There will be no need of inviting the tenders for the same,” the department official said.

Additionally, the minister asked the proposal of restoration step-wells that were not incorporated in Phase I. In the meeting, Sriram Vedire, chairperson of Rajasthan River Basin and Water Resources Planning Authority informed that under the project rain water harvesting structures have been constructed on 11000 state buildings.

The state department also informed that in as many as 33 cities, the facility of door to door garbage pick-up will be introduced till June 30.

The local bodies are in talks with the forest department in 10 cities to develop the greenbelt. In August 2016, the state government launched the second phase of the (MJSS). MJSS second scheme would encompass 4200 villages for which government has allotted a sum of Rs 2100 crore clubbed with high tech applications.