Over 4,000 urban cities declared open defecation free: Govt
New Delhi, Feb 3 : Over 4,000 urban cities have been declared open defecation free (ODF) under the Swachh Bharat Mission, an official at the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said.
Out of the total 4,378 urban cities, 4,140 have already been declared ODF in the country, he said.
The official said almost all the urban cities will become ODF by the next month under the Swachh Bharat Mission, a flagship programme of the Narendra Modi government.
Addressing the joint session of Parliament on January 31, President Ram Nath Kovind had said nine crore toilets were constructed under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, underlining that coverage of rural sanitation that was less than 40 per cent in 2014 has increased to 98 per cent.
"Of the actual targets of building 62,42,220 individual toilets, more than 93 per cent have already been constructed. The ministry has also achieved the 100 per cent target of building community and public toilets with the construction of five lakh such toilets," the official said.
Apart from this, door-to-door collection of solid waste is in place in 72,503 municipal wards out of 84,229 wards, a target of 86 per cent achieved.
The scientific processing of solid waste has gone up over 50 per cent, which was around 18 per cent in 2014, the official added.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
