09-03-23 Daily -Goa- GPSC Current Affairs

More than three years after Goa was declared an open defecation-free (ODF) state, panchayat minister Mauvin Godinho on Saturday set a new deadline.”Our efforts are on to declare Goa as an ODF state by 2024,” he said.

In September 2019, the government had declared Goa an ODF state without sufficient data, to meet a target set by the Union Government. To meet the Centre’s criteria, the state had to construct community and public toilets in urban and rural areas. In some areas, temporary toilets were erected in order to meet the deadline.

However, even after that declaration, many in Goa did not have access to toilets. Mere months earlier, Union government data showed that just 5.87% of Goa’s villages were declared ODF, the lowest coverage in the entire country.