PM Narendra Modi draws up 25-point Swachh roadmap

NEW DELHI: Build more urinals in urban areas, prepare a bank of quotes of famous people and their views on sanitation and focus more on composting of urban waste. These are among the 25 actionable points Prime Minister Narendra Modi has suggested for promoting his flagship Swachh Bharat scheme.

Modi last week held a review of the progress of the programme that he started in October, 2014. Sources said while he was satisfied with the headway being made in the construction of toilets, the PM asked officials of the rural sanitation and urban development ministries to find low-cost technology solutions to existing problems.

TOI has also learnt that Modi wants the ministries to promote success stories to motivate others to make the campaign a "people's movement". One of the ideas discussed was to honour authors of stories that have high impact on people and help in motivating them. According to sources, in the rural sector, five states - Sikkim, Rajasthan, Goa, Meghalaya and Gujarat - have recorded good performance in the past 18 months.

The coverage of households with toilets has increased to 51.8% in March against 38.8% in December 2013. The total number of open-defecation free (ODF) villages is now 54,730.

In urban areas, 33 lakh individual toilets have been completed or are under construction while the figure for community and public toilets is 2.18 lakh. The five top performing states in urban sanitation are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

Urban areas in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala are likely to be ODF by next year. A plan is also in place for a major sanitation drive at 100 iconic sites, including places of religious, tourist and heritage importance. The government is planning a two-day mega event, Indosan to take stock of two years of the mission and develop the strategy for it till October, 2019.