NITI Aayog's CM panel moots greater private participation in Swacch Bharat Abhiyan

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat initiative will not be limited to cleanliness drives or toilet building. Nor will it remain just a government-only scheme. It is expected to be scaled up as a massive corporate programme.

In fact, the chief minister's panel of NITI Aayog, deliberating on Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, wants private players involved in the drive in a big way.

The panel also wants to include solid waste management, waste to energy techniques and comprehensive national plan to treat industrial affluent under the ambit of the ambitious scheme as per the initial discussions of the sub-group, headed by Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu.

A source said that a team of senior officials from the NITI Aayog and state governments will be visiting state capitals and cities to study their models of soil and municipal waste management and thereafter devise a national policy. The panel is discussing the best technologies and best practices available in the country and abroad for the cleanliness and sanitation scheme.

The issues of solid and liquid waste management and changing behavioral pattern, along with the financial requirements for the programme were deliberated upon in the panel's meetings. "The members were of the opinion that the scheme should be run in campaign mode which must be sustainable. They are also working out financial requirement," said an official.

Several members underlined the need for public-private partnership (PPP) model as there was realization that desired results could not be achieved by the government alone. An official said, "Several members were of the view that the scheme should rope in corporates, NGOs and other stakeholders for the success of the ambitious scheme."

He added that scope for utilizing provisions under CSR activities of private companies was also discussed.

The sub-group, which consists of CMs of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Sikkim, West Bengal, and Uttarakhand as members, is expected to submit its report by June end.

Launched on Gandhi Jayanti, October 2, 2014 by the PM, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan has fixed the target of making India free from open defecation by 2019--the 150th birth anniversary year of Mahatma Gandhi.