Centre close to delivering 100% Swachh Vidyalayas
PM Narendra Modi
Chennai: Tamil Nadu has the unique honour of completing construction of toilets under the BJP government’s Swachh Vidyalaya project. before the deadline.
It is one among the 25 states and Union Territories on the list generated by the ministry of human resources development, which has met its quota of toilets ahead of the August 15 deadline. Tamil Nadu is shown to have completed all 7,926 toilets which it got approval for.
However, senior officials told DC the state had set out on the mission to plug the gap in number of toilets in September 2013.
“A joint survey conducted along with the rural development department showed a little more than 2,000 of the 37,000 odd schools in the state needed new toilets. We had completed construction of 4,000 toilets by the time the Centre initiated the project in September 2014,” an official said..
“In constructing 7,926 toilets, the state has gone over and beyond the requirement,” officials said adding it executed the project from its own funds.
Schools to make clean sweep
With a 96.59 per cent completion rate as on Monday, the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre is well on course to delivering on one of its key promises – providing separate, functional toilets for boy and girl students under the Swachh Vidyalaya project.
Tamil Nadu is one among the 25 states and Union Territories on the list generated by the ministry of human resources development, which has met its quota of toilets well ahead of the August 15 deadline.
In his I-Day speech in 2014, Modi said girl students were dropping out due to lack of separate toilets in schools. He then called on corporate firms, public sector undertakings and respective State governments to contribute and make it possible that all schools in the country have separate toilets within one year.
As per MHRD statistics, of the 417,757 toilets which were ‘approved’ to be constructed or renovated in the 33 states and Union Territories, 409,788 toilets are shown as complete with 13,969 remaining.
Lagging behind other states is Odisha which is shown to have as many as 10,799 toilets left to construct or renovate with Bihar at a distant second and having 1,866 toilets remaining.
In Tamil Nadu, the state is shown to have completed all 7,926 toilets which it got approval for. However, senior officials told DC that the state had set out on the mission to plug the gap in number of toilets, as early as in September 2013.
“A joint survey conducted along with the rural development department showed that a little more than 2000 of the 37,000 odd schools in the state needed new toilets. We had completed construction of 4000 toilets by the time the Centre initiated the project in September 2014,” an official said. “In constructing 7,926 toilets, the state has gone over and beyond the requirement,” the official added.
For states short on funds, the Centre distributed money to build toilets through the Swachh Bharat Kosh (SBK). However, Tamil Nadu did not draw money from SBK and executed the project in its own funds, said officials.
Apart from sanitation, other key features of Swachh Vidyalaya project includes provision of hygienic hand-washing platforms with soaps, drinking water infrastructure, operation and maintenance of the facilities as well as communication of behaviour change activities.
But state officials said the Centre had not contributed funds to putting up hand-washing platforms in schools. “In this regard, the state will be tying up with the Rotary Clubs who have pledged to sponsor the facility for 2000 schools,” an official said.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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