Delhi reels under dengue-chikungunya outbreak, Swachh Bharat funds lie unused

India Today | 14 September 2016

Under the campaign, the Capital will receive a total of Rs 360.01 crore over the course of the entire mission period (Oct 2014-19). As of May 2016, Delhi received Rs 139.60 crore.

The city's civic bodies have swept Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship Swachh Bharat Mission under the carpet, indicates a study.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation failed to spend a single paisa out of the Rs 46.28 crore it was allocated for the programme in the previous financial year, says the Delhi Citizens Handbook 2016 prepared by the NGO Centre for Civil Society.

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) could utilise only 0.25 per cent, or Rs 7.93 lakh, of the Rs 31.63 crore it received. The east Delhi civic body got Rs 41.98 crore; how much it spent is unknown.

The Prime Minister launched the Swachh Bharat Mission two years ago, aiming to make India clean and free of open defecation by 2019. A key part of Modi's election campaign in 2014 was the pledge to build 'toilets first, temples later'.

The PM led the drive by wielding the broom at the Mandir Marg Police Station in the Capital and exhorted everyone to follow suit. The campaign is a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, whose 150 birth anniversary will be celebrated in 2019.

However, Mail Today reported on July 26 last year that the BJP-ruled MCDs had failed to construct a single toilet as part of the scheme.

According to the NGO study, of the 4,656 community toilets constructed under the Swachh Bharat Mission in the city, most have been built by the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB).

DUSIB is not an Urban Local Body (ULB) as defined under the Swachh Bharat Mission, and so was not naturally entitled to funds. But the State Mission Directorate transferred about Rs 51 crore from the MCDs to it.

The report comes at a time when the Capital is reeling under a spate of viral diseases.

ROLE OF MUNICIPAL BODIES

Under the campaign, the Capital will receive a total of Rs 360.01 crore over the course of the entire mission period (Oct 2014-19). As of May 2016, Delhi received Rs 139.60 crore.

The DUSIB notifies certain areas as slums, where, with the passage of time, the buildings have become dilapidated and basic civic services are missing. Apart from this, DUSIB has been also assigned the role of looking after the jhuggie jhompri squatter settlements or clusters by way of provision of civic amenities and their resettlement too. Informal settlements in Delhi are of three types: rural villages, unauthorised colonies and JJ clusters.

While the first two have access to basic municipal services, the estimated 20.72 lakh inhabitants of JJ clusters have to struggle to gain access to basic civic amenities such as water supply and sewerage.

Both the north and south civic bodies said it is too early to give details of expenditure which will be available only after work orders for different sections such as “Information, Education and Communication (IEC) as well as sanitation projects are executed.

We are working on different projects under the SBM. There are a number of heads under the Swachh Bharat Mission, said Rajesh Bhatia, vice-chairman of North Delhi Municipal Corporation. "Unless the work is complete, it will be difficult to give the exact figure of spending which will be available by the end of this year."

The BJP has been ruling the civic bodies for the past nine years. The municipal elections are due in early 2017, when the party will be fighting anti-incumbency and will face a tough challenge from Arvind Kejriwal's AAP.

"It is the initial stage of fund expenditure and it is too early to give details of spending," said Shailendra Singh, chairman of the standing committee of SDMC. "The details will be available only after work orders for different heads like IEC and sanitation projects are executed."

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