Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Government to provide Rs 20 lakh to 6.5 lakh villages every year until October 2, 2019

NEW DELHI: The rural development ministry will provide Rs 20 lakh to each village per year for the next five years under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, taking the total annual allocation under the scheme to 6.5 lakh villages to Rs 13,000 crore per annum. This will be part of the Rs 1,34,000 crore earmarked by the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project that aims to construct 11.11 crore toilets in rural India by 2019.

"Government will give Rs 20 lakh per annum for each village panchayat for Clean India campaign," rural development minister Nitin Gadkari said after taking the Swachhata pledge on Thursday.

SBA will replace the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan of the previous UPA government that had targeted sanitation for all by 2022. "This is part of the overall allocation under the national scheme. We will soon come out with guidelines on the same," Vijaylakshmi Joshi, secre tary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation clarified. The remaining allocation under the project will be routed through other sanitation-related scheme of the ministry to ensure that its targets are met. Under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan the government has increased the unit cost of individual household latrines by Rs 2,000 per unit to Rs 12,000 so as to provide for water availability, including for storing, hand-washing and cleaning of toilets.

Besides, it has de-linked it from the rural employment guarantee scheme — the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural E m p l o y m e n t Guarantee Act — and transferred the responsibility of construction of school and Anganwadi toilets to department of school education and the women and child development ministry.

The overall project cost, for both rural and urban India, has been estimated at Rs 1,96,009 crore that will help in construction of 12 crore toilets across the country. Out of this, Rs 62,000 crore will be spent in urban India for construction of toilets.

The mission will culminate on October 2, 2019, which will mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.