Tirupattur, April 20, 2012: In a bid to do away with problems of open defecation, construction of toilets has become mandatory for beneficiaries of Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY). For the period 2011-2012, a total of 2,995 houses are being constructed in Tirupattur and surrounding seven panchayat unions under IAY scheme, according to officials of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department.

Chennai, April 14, 2012: If the Integral Coach Factory has its algorithm right, there will very soon be no smelly toilets on trains. This innovation should make train travel a more pleasant affair. But the absence of smell is only the by-product. The new bio toilets developed by Railways design engineers will do away with manual scavenging on trains and add to the life span of the tracks. The new toilet will have a collection tank fitted with anaerobic bacteria to decompose faecal matter completely.

Chennai, March 16, 2012: Tamil Nadu, acknowledged widely as one of the progressive States, has lived up to this image through its enhanced performance, over the last 10 years, in most of development parameters except sanitation.

Chennai, March 15, 2012: The census 2011 figures on the state of sanitation in Tamil Nadu present a grim picture with little improvement from the previous decade. Even today, 45.7% of the state's population resorts to open defecation due to the absence of proper sanitation facilities.