Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, August 2: Non release of funds to the state has poured water on the implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) in the state.
The state government has made a budget provision of `666.70 crore, including `500 crore of central share, for Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) during the 2015-16 financial year. Of this, the state government has released `100 crore but the Centre has released only `7.10 crore so far, sources in the rural development department said. As a result, the work is progressing slowly.
A baseline survey indicates that out of 90,20,100 rural households in the state, a whopping 79,81,973 households do not have toilets. To ensure that all rural households have individual household latrines, the state government has targeted construction of 12 lakh such latrines in 2015-16, 18 lakh each in 2016-17and 2017-18, 15 lakh in 2018-19 and the rest in 2019-20, sources said.
This was aimed at ensuring proper sanitation facilities in rural areas. However, so far only 1.71 lakh latrines have been constructed, sources said.
Besides, as a result of the reduction of funds from the central government under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), the department has reduced its annual target of installation of spot sources of water supply such as hand pumps and tubewells, during the 2015-16 financial year. The department had targeted the installation of 33,000 spot sources in the current fiscal across 30 districts. This was reduced to 25,000.
The Centre had launched the Swachh Bharat Mission October 2, 2014, to realize Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of a clean India and aims to achieve its target by 2019, to mark his 150th birth anniversary.