Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sanitation campaign in Gujarat gets CAG lashes

AHMEDABAD: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has rapped the Gujarat government for poor implementation of the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) between 2008 and 2013. A CAG report tabled in the state Assembly on Tuesday said municipal solid waste disposal was mismanaged, central grants for the project misused and over 5,000 governmentrun preprimary and primary schools (anganwadis) were left without toilets even though ‘incredible’ project implementation plans were prepared.

TSC was a programme launched by the Union Ministry of Rural Development in 1999 for sustainable reforms in the rural sector through a time bound campaign mode. It was renamed Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in 2012 by the UPA government and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by the new government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat during the period reviewed by CAG. The state did not fix responsibility for wasteful expenditure by Ahmedabad and Porbandar District Rural Development Agency and made little progress in solid and liquid waste management, the report said. Gujarat is set to host ‘Municipalika 2014’ – an international conference on “emerging trends in sustainable habitat and integrated cities” this week in Gandhinagar with special focus on the NDA government’s Clean India campaign.