Meghalaya has completed the first level of verification of the open defecation free (ODF) status it achieved in January 2018 under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin).

The three month long process of first level verification began in April 2018, spanning across 11 districts of the state. A. Lyngkhoi, state coordinator of Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) had mentioned that the second level of verification has already begun in the first week of July and would last for approximately six months.

He also added that whether Meghalaya was able to sustain its ODF status would be verified by the end of the year. Lyngkhoi shared the difficulties of the verification and said that the whole process was rather cumbersome as each and every home had to be verified with a set of standardised parameters.

Owing to the Meghalaya Assembly elections in February, there has been a two-month delay in verification. The state also aims to make all the 2,347 villages free from solid and liquid waste in a year's time.

In order to be declared ODF, each and every household in the state must have a toilet. Till date, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya are the only north-eastern states to have achieved the ODF status. The Centre plans to make the entire country ODF by October 2, 2019.

(Featured Image – Indiaspend)