Panel to finalise funds to end open defecation

NEW DELHI: Six months after the government launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) with much fanfare, it is getting down to the drawing board again to firm up the main contours of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project that seeks to make India an 'open defecation-free' country by 2019.

Asub-group comprising 11 chief ministers, headed by Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, has been set up to finalise the financing modalities for the scheme. The subgroup, created under the aegis of NITI Aayog, will submit its report within three months of its notification.

The campaign was officially launched on October 2 last year by PM Modi himself, cleaning the roads at Rajghat. He had later nominated nine celebrities for the campaign besides roping in three million government employees and school and college students to participate in the event.

"The sub-group would examine the financial requirement for comprehensive implementation of the SBM and suggest measures for meeting budgetary needs," the notification says.

Modi had, during the first meeting of the governing council of the Aayog last month, announced the setting up of three sub-groups, including the one on SBM to decide on institutional mechanisms.

The government has set a robust target of constructing 12 crore toilets, out of which 11.11 crore are to be built in rural India as individual household latrines, toilets in schools, anganwadi and sanitary complexes. This would mean construction of an estimated 8.8 crore individual household latrines in the next five years till 2019 at the rate of 177 lakh toilets per year, or 48,000 toilets, a day.

The hastened approach of the government towards such a massive programme drew a mixed response from economists. "SBM is nothing but re-packaging of the old Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan of the previous government and hence there was not enough background work done before launching it," said one of the economists, requesting anonymity.