Government may request citizens to give up Rs 4,000 subsidy for building toilets

NEW DELHI: The ‘Give-Up’ campaign of LPG subsidy now stands extended to another pet Modi government scheme – Swachh Bharat. The government will be appealing to citizens to not take Rs 4,000 subsidy to build household toilets in urban centres.

The Centre gives a subsidy of Rs 4,000 to every household without a toilet to construct one – states are open to give an additional incentive. The Centre has now decided to run a ‘Give-Up’ campaign for subsidy of construction of individual toilets. Over 26 lakh individual toilets in urban households have been built so far under the subsidy programme while lakhs more remain to be built. The Centre will now appeal to people to not take the subsidy but build a toilet on their own, while giving an application. Earlier, over One crore people have given up their LPG subsidy on the appeal of the Prime Minister asking them to contribute to nation building.

In a communique to all states on November 17, the Centre has impressed that the ‘Give-up’ campaign launched by the government requires that whenever any service or assistance is given to any beneficiary, the real cost of service and subsidy or benefit should also be communicated to him. “The recipient should be encouraged to ‘giveup’ the subsidy and pay the cost of service so that the given-up amount can be given to other needy sections of society. The saving derived from the campaign can be used for other developmental activities of the government,” the communique says, requesting the same to be extended to Swachh Bharat as per the new policy.

The communique is so far meant only for urban component of Swachh Bharat and not for the rural component of the project – the latter involves all the villages where the Rs 4,000 subsidy is crucial for the construction of toilets by the poor.