As many as 13 States/ Union Territories are yet to start the construction of toilets under the Government’s sanitation mission ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’.
“The construction of toilets in urban areas is still to take off in 13 States and UTs including the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Jharkhand, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and West Bengal,” an official in the Ministry of Urban Development said.
Ministry officials have been asked to convey their concerns to the representatives of these States/ UTs to find out the reasons for the same and to ensure the necessary momentum.
Since the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission in October last year, 4,35,805 individual household toilets have been constructed in urban areas of the country till July this year.
Last month, 52,473 household toilets and 3,786 community and public toilet seats were constructed in urban areas, the official said. This was led by Gujarat, which constructed 33,670 household toilets, followed by Madhya Pradesh (7,244), Punjab (5,677), Karnataka (1,845), Haryana (1,829), Chhattisgarh (1,676).
In the construction of community and public toilets in July, Madhya Pradesh led with the construction of 1,550 toilet seats, followed by Rajasthan (640).
The mission targets in urban areas include construction of 1.04 crore individual household toilets, over 5 lakh community and public toilet seats, and 100 per cent door-to-door collection of solid waste, its transportation and disposal, to be achieved by the year 2019. This is being implemented at a cost of ₹62,009 crore.