Politicos' stinking performance

While the districts represented by Union Ministers A K Antony, Farooq Abdullah, Virbhadra Singh, A Raja and Vayalar Ravi will achieve the target this year itself, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s home district of Jammu will have complete toilet coverage only in 2266, going by the current rate of population growth.

The findings are the result of a study of the government’s total sanitation project (TSP) data by the UK-based NGO WaterAid, covering districts represented by Cabinet ministers.  The study has found that only nine out of 33 Cabinet ministers’ constituency districts will meet the 2012 target, while those of six — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mines Minister B K Handique, Law Minister Veerappa Moily, Labour Minister Mallikarjuna Kharge and Food Processing Minister Subodh Kant Sahay, apart from Azad — will meet the target only in 2030 or after that.

Interestingly, Rural Development Minister C P Joshi, who oversees the TSP, will see his own Bhilwara district meeting the target only by 2023.  The relevance of the study, said WaterAid, came from the fact that 66.5 crore Indians, about half of the country’s population, are devoid of toilet facilities.