The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh inaugurated the Third South Asian Conference on Sanitation in New Delhi on 18 November 2008. This Conference has a very special significance because the year 2008 has been declared as the International Year of Sanitation.

CHENNAI: Villages in Tamil Nadu have won a record number of the Nirmal Gram Puraskar awards for rural sanitation this year. The State won 1,474 awards in 2007-08, against 296 the year before.

TIRUCHI: Tiruchi has bagged the highest number of Nirmal Puraskar Awards for 2008 in the State. The annual awards are given by the Union government for cent per cent achievement in village sanitation.

This report is the outcome of a study undertaken to understand the principles of what has worked and what has not worked in Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) which is the national programme on reforms in rural sanitation launched by the Government of India in 1999.

As India becomes more populous

Overcoming the crisis in sanitation and water is one of the greatest human development challenges of the 21st century. Success in addressing the challenge through a concerted national and international response would act as a catalyst for public health, education, poverty reduction and impetus for economic growth.

NAGAPATTINAM: A total of 96 villages in the district have received the Nirmal Gram Puraskar award for 2007-2008, Collector M. Jayaraman said in a press release on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday expressed its resolve to provide toilets and potable water in all rural schools across the country by the end of the current financial year. Union Minister of State for Rural Development Chandra Sekhar Sahu made the twin commitments replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

GUWAHATI

President Pratibha Devisingh Patil here on Monday called for sustainable village development and solid waste management. She blamed the low sanitation facilities responsible for the large number of school dropouts in rural India.

Asserting that the Total Sanitation Campaign was becoming a people

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