With construction of toilets in the rural areas moving at a snail pace, the fund-starved Government on Tuesday asked the banks and micro-finance institutions to come forward in a big way for credit-disbursal to achieve the goal of Swachh Bharat Mission — making India Open Defecation (OD) Free by 2019.
Speaking at a Conference on Innovative Financing for Clean India here, Union Minister of Rural Development and Drinking Water and Sanitation, Birender Singh Chaudhary said that there is incentive of Rs 12,000 for toilet construction for BPl families, but to achieve the universal coverage, there is need for easy financing by banks and other financial institutions.
He said that the Union Finance Ministry has included water and sanitation as new sectors for priority sector lending by commercial banks, but this policy change must translate from intent to action.
Asserting that sanitation is closely linked with poor health, low education status, malnutrition and poverty, the Minister informed that since the launch of the SBM on 2nd October, 2014, more than 14.7mn toilets were constructed in the rural areas, but still close to 50 per cent of our rural population still does not have access to a toilet.
He said that the solid and liquid waste management component of the SBM provides scope for small and medium private sector institutions to engage in waste management and improvisation of village environmental management infrastructure.
Minister of State for Rural Development and Water and Sanitation Ram Kripal Yadav expressed unhappiness at the poor response from the banks and micro-finance bodies towards the mission and called for a guideline to take them to the task in this regard.