PEDDAPALLI: Peddapalli district topped the Swachh Darpan 2020 rankings for being open defecation-free, the second year in a row. The district had topped the last year’s rankings along with five other Telangana districts — Warangal Urban, Jagtial, Kamareddy, Sircilla and Karimnagar.
Under Swachh Darpan, the Central government ranks 700 districts across the country under parameters — building individual and community toilets and geo-tagging, making community soak pits, sanitation, providing drinking water facilities, and educating and communicating information about Swachh Bharat, among others.
In an event organised by the Centre in the Peddapalli district on Friday, collector A Sridevasena explained the ‘Panch Sutras’ (five-point plan) that the authorities implemented in the villages to improve sanitation.
As part of the plan, every household constructed individual toilets and community toilets and authorities geo-tagged them. Open drains, water recharge pits, solid waste management systems and compost pits were constructed in every village. A dumping yard was built in every village.
Sridevasena will receive the Swachh Darpan 2020 award on Sunday in New Delhi. Expressing happiness, the collector said such awards are possible due to the people’s active participation and the coordination between authorities and public representatives. Earlier, Peddapalli district had even bagged two national awards for sanitation. She requested the people of the district people to continue with the same spirit.