Mumbai: Union Minister for Development, Venkaiah Naidu, today urged Maharashtra to hurry up and enforce the initiatives under the Swachch (Clean) Bharat Mission for an Open Defecation Free (ODF) state.
Reviewing the progress of these initiatives during his visit to Mumbai, he said, “It was my belief earlier that Maharashtra would lead the country in becoming the first ODF state, but already Andhra Pradesh has declared that it will become an ODF state by October 2, 2016.”
Out of 361 towns and cities in the state, he said, only 51 have become ODF since the inception of the toilet construction programme in May 2015. “Another 50 towns and cities are on the verge of becoming ODF towns.”
Speaking to 27 municipal commissioners and senior officers of urban local bodies, Naidu said his ministry has released Rs1.62 billion (Dh89 million) so far for the toilet construction programme and another Rs4.17 billion is available for release over the mission period.
In Maharashtra, against the target of constructing 450,000 individual household latrines up to March 2017, work has commenced on around 270,000 latrines and 199,000 have been completed. Against the target of constructing 22,000 community and public toilet seats up to March 2017, work has commenced on 6,072 seats, and 3,467 seats have been constructed.
Naidu urged Maharashtra to speed up the process and become an ODF state at the earliest by accelerating work on both the components.
Reviewing the progress of solid waste management, Naidu said that out of the 59,400 metric tonne (MT) capacity of compost plants in the state, only 12,071 MT were being produced. There is only one Waste To Energy plant in Solapur that is functional while another plant at Pune nears completion. Naidu asked the state government to build many more such plants.
The minister also asked Maharashtra to fare better on the count of door-to-door waste collection as presently such a service is available only in 561 municipal wards out of a total of 7,054 wards. “You must target all wards to achieve the same at the earliest,” he advised.
Surprisingly, no funds have been taken from the Government of India as of date, though Rs10.82 billion is available over the mission period. “I request you to kindly get projects approved expeditiously and approach the Centre for funds.” He also urged urban local bodies to focus on community-led thematic drives by encouraging citizen engagement. He added programmes such as the Swachch Bharat Mission will be successful only if they becomes a citizen’s movement.
