The Modi Government is racing against time to achieve its target of making 5,169 villages in five States along the river Ganga Open Defecation Free (ODF) by December 2016.
So far, just 300 villages have achieved the status of the ODF under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project Swachchh Bharat Mission (SBM). And the ongoing flood situation along the banks of Ganga is only expected to play a spoilsport in achieving the target.
The 5,169 villages fall under 1,651 gram panchayats (GPs) in 52 districts of five States-Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal-from where the holy river flows through.
Officials from the Water and Sanitation Ministry, which is entrusted with the task of implementing the SBM in rural areas, admitted that the job at hand is quite challenging but were optimistic of meeting the target.
“We have been making rounds of the States to expedite the mission, the progress being monitored regularly. Meetings and video conferences have been held with senior officials of the States,” said Akshay Rout, from the Ministry, who is overseeing the implementation of the mission along the Ganga.
“On statistics, West Bengal is doing quite good. Uttarakhand has a small number of villages along Ganga river. But Uttar Pradesh and Bihar remain a challenge. We have ensured that the 1561 villages are given finance on a priority basis within the Mission,” he said.
Talking about the overall progress of the Mission in the rural area, Parameswaran Iyer, Drinking Water And Sanitation Secretary said, so far 2.2 crore toilets have been constructed.
“Surveys by NSSO and Quality Council of India have shown the usage is high, it is above 90 percent. Of course, there may be some aberrations,” he said at a press briefing here.
To a question on maintenance of the toilets constructed, he said given majority of them are household ones, “assumption is the households will continue to maintain those”.
He, however, admitted cleanliness of toilets built in schools/institutions “is an issue” and added the government is focusing on how to maintain those.
The NDA government has set a deadline of year 2019 to become ODF. So far, 17 districts and 77,000 villages across the country have become ODF.
Sikkim has already announced itself as an ODF state.”Now the challenge is bigger as there are 6,50,000 villages. But we are confident, we are on track,” he said.