President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, graced and addressed a function organised to declare urban Maharashtra Open Defecation Free (ODF) today (October 1, 2017) in Mumbai. President Ram Nath Kovind addressed a function held to declare urban Maharashtra open defecation free. Hailing Maharashtra govt for their exemplary work towards cleanliness, President said that, with the declaration of urban Maharashtra open defecation free, almost half of Maharashtra has become open defecation free, since 49 percent population in Maharashtra lives in urban areas. Declaring urban Maharashtra as ODF, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that there is a need to change mind-set towards open defecation. To achieve that goal, the state government has launched ODF Watch, asking people to use toilets and avoid open defecation.
President said that the declaration of 'ODF' Urban Maharashtra is particularly relevant for the state as 49 per cent of Maharashtra’s people live in urban areas. ‘Smart Cities’, he said, also require ‘Smart Sanitation’ and ‘Smart Waste Management’. The President added that it was a matter of great satisfaction that the Government is focusing on sustainability of this successful campaign. The ‘OD Watch’ monitoring will be useful in alerting people and helping them quit old habits and not relapsing to open defecation. He hoped that just as the state has been successful in realising the goal of 'ODF', it would also realise the goal of 'Managing 100 per cent Waste'. The President said that tomorrow is Gandhi Jayanti and Maharashtra has paid a befitting tribute to Gandhiji by declaring urban Maharashtra Open Defecation Free today.
