Govt to pump extra money for rural toilets for Swachh Bharat by 2019

Union Minister for Rural Development and Drinking Water and Sanitation, Shri Nitin Gadkari has said that he has prepared a Cabinet note for considerable enhancement of monetary support for building different categories of rural toilets in the country to achieve the goal of sanitation for all by 2019. Speaking at a National Workshop on Sanitation and Drinking Water here, the Minister said, for individual household latrines the amount will be raised from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000, for school toilets Rs 54,000 will be given instead of Rs 35,000. Similarly for Anganwadi toilets, the amount will be now Rs 20,000 in place of Rs 8,000 and for Community Sanitary complexes, the amount proposed is Rs 6 lakh from the existing Rs 2 lakh. Shri Gadkari also said that construction of toilets in rural areas will be delinked from MGNREGA. He called for fast decisions and sought support of all sections of society to achieve the goal of open defecation free India in the next four and half years. He also urged the State Ministers and Senior officials attending the workshop to work in the spirit of cooperative federalism to achieve the dream project of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to build Swachh Bharat by 2019. Shri Gadkari underlined the need for quality works and suitable low cost effective technologies for toilets to last upto thirty to forty years. To address the problem of drinking water especially in those 17,000 habitations having problems like arsenic, excessive fluoride, heavy metals and other pollutants, the Minister said that a new scheme will be launched in the next two months to address this issue and it will be resolved on a war footing level. Speaking on the occasion, the Secretary. Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Shri Pankaj Jain said that Prime Minister Shri Modi has personally expressed anguish in his Independence Day speech and expressed the commitment of his Government to achieve ‘Swachh Bharat’ by 2019 as a tribute to the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, by eliminating the unhealthy practice of Open Defecation. He said, by 15th of August 2015 every school in India will have separate toilets for boys and girls. Shri Jain said that IEC can play an important role in spreading the message of toilets in every rural habitation and appealed to the Corporate to chip in a big way for this purpose. In his address, the noted scientist Dr R.A.Mashelkar said, the innovative ideas should not remain only ideas, but must be put into practical use for rejuvenation of India. He said, speed, scale and sustainability are three key factors of innovations and by translating them into usable products, the face of rural India will be changed. Dr Mashelkar said, Innovation and not Imitation should be the buzzword and he added that Indian problems need India specific solutions and not western imitations.