PANAJI: Goa will become open defecation free by October 2 this year, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has said.
"We are going to construct 72,000 toilets in different parts of both the districts (North Goa and South Goa) of the state," the chief minister said at an event here yesterday.
On the occasion, Parrikar rued shortage of toilets in a number of village panchayats in the state.
The chief minister said he felt "embarrassed" due to plight of women who have to defecate in the open due to absence of sufficient toilets in their villages.
"Yesterday, I was in a rural area and I started inquiring with them about toilets. I came to know that there are several village panchayats that are short of toilets by at least 100 to 250 numbers. So I asked them what about women from the village. The locals said women go to the forest areas early morning to relieve themselves," Parrikar said while addressing an event here yesterday.
The chief minister said he was "embarrassed" to know about plight of women in such villages.
"My sensitivity does not permit me to have any Goan woman going in the open for defecation," he said.
Parrikar said the talks like building infrastructure on the lines of Singapore are hollow until citizens have basic facilities like toilets.
He said full-scale attempts are made to make both the districts of Goa "open defecation free zones".
"In the past, state government had constructed around 1.04 lakh toilets for the Below Poverty Line (BPL) people, of which 90 per cent were used as a store room," he said.