‘No Toilet, No Bride’

Days after he kicked up a row by stating that there were more temples than toilets in the country, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday urged women not to get married into families that do not have toilets in their homes.

“Don’t get married in a house where there is no toilet,” the Rural Development and Water and Sanitation Minister said while addressing people of Khajuri village near Kota.

“You consult astrologers about rahu–ketu before getting married. You should also look whether there is a toilet at your groom’s home before you decide to get married,” he said.

Later, Mr. Ramesh launched the third edition of the Nirmal Bharat Yatra at Sangod in Kota district.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/now-ramesh-says-no-toilet-no-bride/article4019740.ece

Bio-Toilet Developed By DRDO Praised .

Bio—toilets developed by DRDO today earned praise from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who said that these could go a long way in solving the problem of open defecation in rural India.

He said if these “green, cost effective flush and forget technology is successfully implanted, it will give a big boost to our Total Sanitation Campaign.”

“I was very happy to learn that DRDO in collaboration with FICCI has developed a bio—toilet that promises to solve the problem of open defecation in rural India,” the Prime Minister said addressing a DRDO awards function here. Singh said, “Application of technology to social benefit programmes should be expanded further.”

Recently, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh had said that India had emerged as the world capital of “open defecation” and this was a “matter of shame, anguish, sorrow, anger.” He had said that the government intended to rid the country of open defecation in the next 10 years and added that the bio—toilets would also help in curbing manual scavenging which was still prevalent in about 15 lakh insanitary latrines.

DRDO’s bio—toilet is based on anaerobic biodegradation of organic waste by unique microbial consortium and works at a wide temperature range. The consortium has been made through acclimatisation, enrichment and bioaugumentation of cold—active bacteria collected from Antarctica and other low temperature areas.

The Defence Ministry and the Rural development Ministry have also signed MoUs for installing these toilets in over one lakh gram panchayats in next few years.PTI

source : The Hindu