PM Modi lauds UP village for becoming free of open defection

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday congratulated the people of Mubarakpur, a small village in Uttar Pradesh, for becoming free of open defecation and said it was the best example 'Swatchh Bharat' movement.

Appreciating the villagers for declining the government aid and constructing the toilets in the village on their own, Modi said that such cases were best examples of clean India (Swatchh Bharat).

"I am surprised and at the same time happy to see the way people of Mubarakpur, a small muslim village in Uttar Pradesh, have made their village ODF (Open Defecation Free). Though they got the government aid of Rs 17 lakh to construct toilets, they returned it," said Modi in the 33rd edition of his radio programme "Mann Ki Baat".

With the total number of states now totally devoid of the population defecating in the open rising to five, over two lakh villages and 147 districts have been declared ODF across the country.