Modi’s dream project of creating a `Swach Bharat’ by 2019 by freeing India from open defecation is a far-away dream considering the existing allocations of money and labour, according to government officials who have been working for more than two months on a proposal to create the road map for the project.
‘Swach Bharat’ is a mass mission that aims at building over 800 million toilets and establishes modern sewage systems to make India free from open drains and open defecation in the coming five years.
It is said to be the PM’s tribute to Gandhi, whose 150th anniversary will be celebrated in 2019.
As per the proposal prepared by the Ministry for Drinking Water and Sanitation, it point out the project would need much more time, manual and budgetary resources to meet the deadline.
A draft of the proposal, as ministry sources said, will be submitted to the PMO in the next 10 days.
The project envisages building of at least 20 million toilets in the first one year. According to a senior official at the ministry, “There are several challenges the project faces, most important of which is shortage of labour to build toilets and maintain them. Also the project overlaps with at least 20 existing health and sanitation schemes and there is much uncertainty of distribution of funds. With existing resources, the project might be extended beyond 2022.”
The ministry has also sought the help of ministries of HRD, health and department of panchayati raj to carry out at least 2,000 awareness programmes by the end of this year and submit a report on use of existing toilets and case in point of open defecation in villages.