Clean-up tips for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan from CAG

NEW DELHI: For the success of NDA government's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the federal auditor has suggested fusing social schemes with realistic planning, emphasise on information and education campaigns and improve overall governance at the grassroots.

The CAG found loopholes in the implementation of UPA's Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, and said that the country's sanitation programmes have failed to meet targets due to planning weaknesses. Largescale diversions, wastage and irregularities were also detected in the audit. The audit covered Rs 10,000 crore spent by the Centre on rural sanitation from 2009-14.

Quoting a WHO report, CAG says 60.09 per cent Indians still defecate in the open - the highest in the world. The CAG pointed out that while the Swachh Bharat Mission was launched by PM Narendra Modi on October 2, 2014, to completely eradicate open defecation in India by 2019, similar targets had been set for 2012, revised to 2017 and again set out for 2022.

"The conceptual framework kept changing from supply driven to demand driven and finally to 'saturation and convergence' approach, yet the lessons learnt and experimentations through this long journey do not seem to have made much impact on the sanitation status in the country," the report said.

Apart from planning level weaknesses, efforts to involve corporates in the Nirmal Bharat Programme could not be implemented properly due to the ministry's lackadaisical approach, the audit said, pointing out large-scale diversion of funds.

CAG cautioned that mere deployment of resources may not have much impact unless implementation is based on realistic planning backed by awareness campaigns and improvement in governance at grassroots. It said convergence with related programmes, like NRHM, is necessary and an effective mechanism for independent evaluation is required to achieve the desired goal of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.