Worried over the tardy implementation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in the villages along Ganga, the Centre has prodded the state governments to speed up building toilets in gram panchayats on both its banks.
When the SBM was launched a year ago, 1,652 gram panchayats along the Ganga had altogether 15.2 lakh households without toilets. A recent review by the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS), however, revealed that toilets could be built in only 2.84 lakh households along the villages on both banks.
The slow pace of implementation of the SBM has made the Centre worried. The MDWS of late wrote to the governments of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal to speed up its implementation.
“The progress of implementation of the Ganga Action Plan of under SBM (Gramin) is not in tune with the action plan submitted earlier by the states,” the MDWS noted in a communiqué to the states.