Replicate Bangladesh strategies to end open defecation in West Bengal: MP Hossain

Bangladesh Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain with Subrata Mukherjee in Kolkata Monday. (Express photo)

West Bengal should replicate the strategies adopted by Bangladesh to eradicate open defecation, said Bangladesh MP and minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, who was in the city with a team of delegates on Monday. “Our country has become around 99 per cent open defecation free (ODF), and that has been possible with the participation of common people. I believe it can also be duplicated in West Bengal to achieve success in the same mission, in which the state has already made a lot of commendable progress,” he told The Indian Express.

Hossain, who is minister of local government, rural development and cooperatives in Bangladesh, is on a two-day trip to India with his delegates. He visited Kerala on Sunday and spent Monday in Bengal to study panchayats and the state’s urban development. “Our prime minister has set us a target for us, to turn our country from a developing state to a mid-income economy by 2021. By 2041, we intend to become a developed country. This will not be possible if 100 per cent ODF is not achieved,” he said while speaking to the press.

Advertisement

Asked what had he seen in the state’s rural areas which he would be happy to take back, he said, “Infrastructure-wise, the panchayats of West Bengal are good. This will help in nation-building. The panchayats here have the direct support of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.”

Speaking about their interaction with the Bangla delegates, state Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee said, “We got to know of their achievements and they got to know of our work,” he said. Mukherjee said that there had been considerable progress in Bengal as well.

“We have initiated Nirmal Bangla project and four of our districts have been declared 100 per cent ODF. There had been some initial resistance in districts like Murshidabad and Malda, but now the drive is gaining momentum there,” Mukherjee said. He added that since both Bengal and Bangladesh had several similarities in terms of culture and demography, many of the challenges in rural development were identical.