With an idea to make competitive environment to make the cities clean and expedite the Swachh Bharat Mission of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu launched Swachh Survekshan-2017 for 500 cities in New Delhi on August 6.
What is Swachh Bharat Mission?
- Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a national campaign by the Government of India, covering 4,041 statutory cities and towns, to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country.
- The campaign was officially launched on 2 October 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is India’s biggest ever cleanliness drive and 3 million government employees and school and college students of India participated in this event.
- The programme has also received funding and technical support from the World Bank, corporations as part of corporate social responsibility initiatives, and by state governments under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan schemes.
- Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is expected to cost over Rs.620 billion (US$9.2 billion). The government provides an incentive of Rs.12,000 (US$180) for each toilet constructed by a BPL family.
- Total fund mobilised under Swachh Bharat Kosh as on 31 January 2016 stood at ₹3.69 billion (US$55 million). An amount of Rs.90 billion was allocated for the mission in 2016 Union budget of India.
- Government and the World Bank signed a US$1.5 billion loan agreement on 30 March 2016 for the Swachh Bharat Mission to support India’s universal sanitation initiative.
- The World Bank will also provide a parallel $25 million technical assistance to build the capacity of select states in implementing community-led behavioural change programmes targeting social norms to help ensure widespread usage of toilets by rural households.
Swachh Survekshan:-
On its second stand to cover 500 cities and towns with a population of one lakh and above, besides capital towns with less than one lakh population and towns known for heritage, tourism and hilly locations this Swachh survekshan has been extended to cover the growing population of the Indian cities.
- Venkaiah Naidu addressed Mayors, Municipal Chairpersons, Municipal Commissioners and other concerned officials of 500 cities and towns to be surveyed via video conferencing and he informed the city officials that cities will be ranked based on the reports by urban local bodies on the progress made towards construction of toilets, feedback of citizens and independent observation of sanitation levels.
In order to facilitate the reach of this scheme to the living population, the Central Minister launched several schemes such as,
- Swachh Survekshan guide book,
- Swachh Survekshan ideas book,
- Manual of Municipal Solid Waste Management,
- Self-Assessment Tool,
- A short film on Swachh Survekshan,
- Toll-free number 1969 and
- A mobile Swachhta app.
Shri Venkaiah Naidu also launched ‘Asli Tarakki’ campaign highlighting the need for construction of toilets.
