Prepare 2 yr action plan for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Government to ministries

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister's office has directed all the ministries to prepare a two-year action plan for implementation of the much-celebrated ' Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'.

The execution of the plans will be monitored by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the Rural Development Ministry along with the Urban Development Ministry, official sources said.

Parameswaran Iyer, Secretary, Drinking Water and Sanitation confirmed that action plans have been prepared by all Union ministries and that they started implementing the same.

"All ministries have prepared the action plans for Swachh Bharat Mission for the current financial year 2017-18 and for 2018-19. The respective ministries have committed Rs 5,300 crore budget for sanitation this year," he told PTI.

The idea behind preparing these action plans is to integrate sanitation as core function of all Central government organisations and ministries in order to take the cleanliness drive to the next level, the official said.

Iyer added that the execution of the action plans will also be monitored through an online portal.

Ministries have also been asked to plan special drives on important days like Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas, Republic Day, World Water Day, Ambedkar Jayanti, International Women's Day, World heritage Day and World Environment Day, the sources added.