Hyderabad: Nearly 3,000 schools in Telangana are still waiting for corporate funding to build toilets under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swachh Vidyalaya programme.
Meanwhile, the schools in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh are completely booked by companies.
All the government schools without toilets in Andhra Pradesh have been reserved by companies for building toilets from their CSR fund.
However, only about two to three private companies have come forward to build toilets in schools in the country with the rest being Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) and even Union ministries.
The Prime Mionister had asked corporates to fund construction of toilets with their CSR money by “booking” schools of their choice.
Booking was opened two months ago by the Union HRD ministry for corporates under the Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya programme.
Telangana, along with Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal and Bihar are the only states which have more than 2,000 schools still waiting for corporate funding pledges.
Government schools in the remaining states are almost completely booked. Out of the 20,688 toilet-less schools in Telangana, 2,745 schools still cant find any corporate patrons while all 28,067 toilet-less schools in Andhra Pradesh have been reserved by PSUs.
Interestingly, most PSUs are choosing schools in the vicinity of their operational plants like Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) has pledged to build toilets in schools located only in Telangana.
Interestingly, the Power Finance Corporation has booked more than 7000 schools in Andhra Pradesh while Telangana schools have found patrons in BDL, BPCL, NTPC, Ministry of Petroleum and REC.
However, state-owned public corporations have not come forward to build toilets in schools.
