16.34 cr rural households have access to toilets: govt to LS

Over 16.34 crore rural households in the country have access to toilets and highest of them are in Uttar Pradesh, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said in Lok Sabha on Thursday. Shekhawat said out of the over 16.34 crore rural households which have access to toilets, 2.84 crore are in Uttar Pradesh, 1.59 crore in Bihar and 1.37 crore in West Bengal.

The Union Minister of Jal Shakti said no universal sanitation coverage survey has been published by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation. However, in order to ensure sustainability of open defecation free status and to ensure that no one is left behind, the government has advised all states and union territories including Uttar Pradesh to identify if any rural households have been missed out.

Subsequently, many states have undertaken special drives to identify such missed out households and all the states have been encouraged to provide necessary support to these households to construct toilets, he said during Question Hour. PTI ACB NAB DV DV.

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