‘Swachh Bharat’ failed in Delhi, says Swaraj Abhiyan leader

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 27

The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, has flopped in Delhi as all three BJP-ruled municipal corporations have failed to spend the money sanctioned under the mission, alleged Ajeet Jha, general secretary, Swaraj Abhiyan.

Addressing a press conference, Jha said the Union government had announced to make the country open defecation-free by the year 2019. However, over the past two years and a half, not even a single individual toilet had been constructed in Delhi. Residents of jhugi jhopri (JJ) clusters were going out to relieve themselves, he added.

The Swaraj Abhiyan leader said the Union government had allocated Rs 336 crore for construction of individual and community toilets in Delhi under the SBM. In 2015-16, the government had sanctioned Rs 139.06 crore to the Delhi government for releasing it to the three municipal corporations. He said the South Delhi civic body was sanctioned Rs 66.47 crore while it spent only Rs 1.46 crore. The East Delhi Municipal Corporation was given Rs 83.99 crore and the North Delhi civic body Rs 92.28 crore, but these did not spend even a penny of it.

Jha said since the municipal corporations failed to spend the money sanctioned in 2015-16 for construction of toilets, these were denied the second instalment by the Delhi government the next fiscal.

He said though the government had money for construction of toilets and cleanliness, the work was not being done due to complicated structure of the government and local bodies. Toilets are to be constructed in JJ clusters that come under the municipal corporations but sewer lines are laid by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), which does not fall under the SBM.  Having seen this, the AAP-led government diverted some funds to the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) to construct public toilets. 

Jha said due to complicated structure of the local bodies, the sanitation work and construction of toilets were not being done and Delhi was stinking and the SBM had completely failed.