Context:

• Arunachal Pradesh on Sunday emerged as the second State in the Northeast, after Sikkim, to be declared Open Defecation Free.
• The three remaining districts – Upper Subansiri, Siang and Changlang — were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) officially on Sunday, an official release said.
• Arunachal has 21 districts and the State attained the feat much before the national deadline of October 2, 2019.
• The State government had cut short the ODF target by one year and 10 months ahead of the national target and set December 31 this year as the deadline.
• The project undertaken under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) SBM (G) saw the light of day only after the State government extended an incentive of Rs 8,000 per toilet.
• This is in addition to the Centre’s support of Rs 12,000, raising the grant for constructing a toilet to Rs 20,000.
• The State government also launched Swachh Arunachal Mission on October 2 this year at Tawang which envisaged the Swachh Protocol (Cleanliness Protocol) aimed at ensuring sustainability of assets created under SBM (Gramin).

Source:TH