Panaji, March 30 (IANS) Slums are the biggest challenge vis-a-vis the implementation of the Swachch Bharat campaign, Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said on Monday.
Goa will achieve the objectives of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship programme two years before the 2019 deadline, he added.
“Goa will be a clean state by 2017, two years before the target set for Swachch Bharat by Modi. The only real obstacle we are facing is the open defecation in slum areas. Otherwise nearly all areas have toilets,” Parsekar said at a Swachch Bharat function at the state secretariat.
Parsekar also said that his government was trying to work out a mechanism to provide public toilets in slums including Goa’s biggest slum at Zuari Nagar in South Goa.
Located 45 km from Panaji, the slum is home to 3,000 families.
According to the 2011 census, Goa, a small state with a population of 1.5 million, has three slums accounting for 5,497 households.