New Delhi, Sept. 28, 2012: Sanitation is in limelight again. Jairam Ramesh, Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation, on Friday September 28, 2012 announced a 51-day Nirmal Bharat Yatra. The yatra would travel through five states and reach nine crore people spreading awareness about sanitation facilities and practices.

The Nirmal Bharat Yatra is an initiative which is supported by the Government of India's Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) and Eawag. The Yatra will visit various rural locations in India and will travel to five states where sanitation is vital. The Yatra will be passing through six towns and villages on its way, and aims to reach around 90 million people.

Maharashtra, Sept 20, 2012: The Census 2011, which counts not just heads but what indicators to better lives are available with families—refrigerators, cars, telephones and toilets etc.—found only 29,57,408 toilets.

Look at the numbers: those ‘missing’ are more than those which actually are in place and counted. That is, more than half. The report says a shocked Unicef, which deals with quality of life issues, especially of the poor, found out the gap between the myth and reality and brought it to the notice of Maharashtra government.

New Delhi, Sept. 18, 2012:  Statistics and reality are often vastly different in India and to address this issue Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Rural Development, announced the plan to set up an NGO Forum for independent evaluation.

Ramesh said the Forum, which would comprise 30 Non-Governmental Organisations, would serve as an independent agency for evaluation of progress under the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan.

New Delhi, Sept. 18, 2012: The Minister for Rural Development and Drinking Water and Sanitation Shri Jairam Ramesh said that there is need for de-bureaucratising the sanitation issue in the country and to make it truly a people’s movement. Speaking at a National Workshop for State and District Level Swachchhta Preraks here, he expressed the hope that India will become an open defecation free country in the next ten years.

New Delhi, Sept. 18, 2012: If Uttar Pradesh becomes open defecation-free in 10 years, I can accept that Saibaba is alive," rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday said expressing doubts about the state achieving the complete Nirmal status in next 10 years.

“Nirmal Gujarat” is about managing waste related with industries, transportation, hospitals, sanitation, solid waste disposal and tourism. It is also protecting water bodies, trees, green spaces and heritage buildings. It envisages capacity building in the management of waste generated in airports and railway stations, fairs and temples, office building, hospitals, roadside eateries, public toilets, streets, community halls, schools, land fill sites, vegetable markets and parking spaces.

Bhubaneshwar, Sept 10, 2012: Despite having reached the half-way mark, the Odisha Government has laid out an ambitious plan to achieve total sanitation by 2019. By March, the sanitation coverage in the State stood at 55.33 per cent as per the Total Sanitation Campaign monitoring data of Government of India. Given the rate, the State expects to achieve total sanitation in next seven years.

Hyderabad, Sept. 6, 2012: In an initiative towards ensuring total sanitation, the Andhra Pradesh Government has launched an ambitious programme to construct about 10 lakh toilets in a year.

"We want to construct about 10 lakh toilets. We are doing this under total sanitation programme. We will provide Rs 10,000 for each toilet," Rural Development Minister D Manikya Varaprasad told reporters here today.

New Delhi, Aug 23, 2012: The Government has proposed under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan to provide toilets in government schools not covered under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and Anganwadi Centres in the rural areas. Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister for Rural Development Shri Jairam Ramesh said, the States are pursued to construct all balance school and Anganwadi toilets in the rural areas on priority to achieve the project objectives and funds required are released to the States.