Success of 'Swachh Bharat' campaign depends on states

NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi government may have taken the lead to launch the nation-wide cleanliness and sanitation campaign, but its success will largely depend on how state governments, local municipal bodies and village panchayats respond to this and take it ahead.

A lot more will depend on how the local bodies are equipped to dispose off both the solid and liquid waste, some of the municipal commissioners told TOI. "Cleanliness and sanitation are state subjects on which the Centre has no control," said one of them.

In fact, in non-BJP ruled states including Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Odisha the launch of Swachh Bharat campaign was a low key affair, though Central BJP leaders wielded brooms to mark the occasion either at state headquarters or in their constituencies.

Some of the heads of small municipal bodies admitted that there is huge shortage of manpower and they don't have capacity to manage sewer and solid waste. "As per norms we should have 32 sanitation employees for 10,000 persons. But that's hardly maintained and the financial condition of municipal bodies is dismal. There is huge capacity deficit," admitted chief executive officer of a municipal council in Uttar Pradesh.

Another municipality head said while complete sanitation has four components, the last one — disposal of waste — is the most important. "Until you have the complete and scientific disposal system of the waste, all other efforts from collecting waste to transport them have no meaning. You just shift the problem from one place to the other. The focus has to be on minimizing waste generation and their disposal. Because of this mission soon we may see municipalities preparing huge plans and rushing them to the state government for funding," he said.