Half the states show poor progress under Swachh Bharat Mission

NEW DELHI: Construction of toilets in urban areas, a key component under Swachh Bharat Mission, has not started in half the states almost a year after the ambitious initiative was launched by Modi government.

Fourteen laggard states and union territories have not started building toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission. The list includes election-bound Bihar, Congress-ruled Kerala and Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Jharkhand, Lakshadweep, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and West Bengal. Swachh Bharat Mission targets in urban areas include construction of 1.04 crore individual household toilets, over 5 lakh community and public toilet seats and 100% door-to-door collection of solid waste, its transportation and disposal, to be achieved by the year 2019.

Prime Minister’s home state Gujarat leads in the initiative. Gujarat has built the most number of household toilets at 33,670. This accounts for 64% of the total toilets built in urban areas in the country. The other lead performers are also BJP-ruled states. Gujarat is followed by Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Congress-ruled Karnataka, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Manipur and Uttarakhand.

In construction of community and public toilets in July this year, Madhyra Pradesh led with construction of 1550 toilet seats, followed by Rajasthan (640), Tamil Nadu (600), Telangana (530) and Odisha (420).

Ten states have not started processing solid waste. The list again includes election-bound Bihar and Congress-ruled Assam. Other laggard states include West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Sikkim, Tripura, Nagaland, Jharkhand, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

With regard to progress in solid waste management in July, Jammu & Kashmir led others having reported 100% door-to-door collection of municipal waste in 989 wards, followed by Andhra Pradesh (777), Rajasthan (215), Haryana (196), UP(184), MP (110) and Maharashtra in 76 wards. Out of the 78,003 municipal wards in the country, 31,470 wards have so far reported 100% door-to-door collection of solid waste, including the progress achieved before the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission.