‘Toilets in all Bengal rural homes by March 2019’

Kolkata, July 14 (IANS) The West Bengal government has set a target to construct toilets across all villages of the state by March 2019 to enable open defecation free (ODF) rural Bengal, an official said.

"By March 2019, we plan to have toilets across all rural homes in the state," Dibyendu Sarkar, commissioner in the state's panchayat and rural development department, told IANS on Wednesday.

"The Hooghly, East Midnapore and North 24 Parganas districts will be ODF by September this year while the districts of Burdwan and South 24 Paraganas are working fast and hope to achieve ODF by March 2017," Sarkar said.

In 2015, Nadia district became the first to achieve ODF status in the country.