Miles to go for Swachh Assam

Not a single household toilet built under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in Assam in the year 2015-16

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, April 27: A lot of hype was generated when Prime Minister rendra Modi had launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a mission to clean India's cities and villages, on October 2, 2014.

At the initial stage, the campaign gained momentum with many celebrities, politicians and academic institutions organising cleanliness drives across the country.

But due to lack of effort by the state governments, the campaign seems to have lost its momentum.

According to official records, ten states in the country - including five from Northeast - did not complete construction of a single household toilet under the Swachh Bharat Mission during the year 2015-16. Assam, Aruchal Pradesh, Sikkim, Meghalaya and Tripura are among the states which could not complete a single unit in the last fiscal.

In Assam, the target was to build 35,048 household toilets. Work had commenced on 833 toilets, but not a single unit was completed during the year.

In contrast, Gujarat had completed 4,97,634 units and Madhya Pradesh 1,82,072 units during the year.

Work on 4,800 community and public toilets had also started in Assam, but only 38 were completed during the year.

Tamil du, on the other hand, had constructed 36,752 such toilets during the year.

When it comes to door-to-door collection of waste, the target in Assam was to reach 444 wards. But the system was launched only in 92 wards during the year.

In Tamil du, the door-to-door collection of waste was completed in 9,182 wards.

The main objectives of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) are to elimite open defecation and to ensure scientific municipal solid waste magement in the urban areas of the country. The Central government provides assistance to the cities in the form of incentive to individuals towards construction of household toilets, 40 per cent of the project cost for the construction of community toilets and 20 per cent of the project cost for municipal waste magement.

The implementation of the scheme is a task that requires involvement of the state governments, urban local bodies and citizens.