Focus to bring ‘swachhta’ to urban India
Budget 2021-22:
To ensure ‘swachhta’ in India, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said in the Budget 2021 that the government will focus on complete faecal sludge management. Sitharaman said that in order to tackle the burdening problem of pollution, the ministry has proposed Rs 2,217 crore for 42 urban centres having a population of more than a million people.
Union Budget 2021:
To ensure ‘swachhta’ in India, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has introduced Swachh Bharat 2.0 and said that the government will focus on complete faecal sludge management. Apart from this, wastewater treatment, segregation of garbage, reduction in single-use plastics, reduction in air pollution by managing waste from construction sites and demolition activities along with bioremediation of all legacy dumpsites will be taken into consideration. “The urban swachh Bharat mission 2.0 will be implemented with a total financial allocation of Rs 1.41 lakh crore over a period of 5 years from 2021,” the FM said.
Sitharaman said that in order to tackle the burdening problem of pollution, the ministry has proposed Rs 2,217 crore for 42 urban centres having a population of more than a million people.
The earlier Swachh Bharat mission introduced by the Modi government had an initial goal to make urban India open defecation free (ODF) as well as 100 per cent scientific solid waste management. In the Swachh Bharat 2.0, the government is trying to tap other aspects under the Swachh Bharat mission including safe containment, transportation, disposal of faecal sludge, and septage from toilets. This has also been highlighted by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs earlier. All wastewater will be treated properly before it is discharged into water bodies, and the government is trying to make maximum possible re-use a priority.
Since its launch in 2014, Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) has made significant progress in the area of both sanitation and solid waste management. 4,324 urban local bodies have been declared Open Defecation Free, which has been made possible through the construction of more than 66 lakhs individual household toilets and over 6 lakhs community/ public toilets, far exceeding the Mission’s targets, the statement highlighted. Additionally, over 59,900 toilets across over 2900 cities have been made live on Google Maps.
Source: FE Online
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