Ahead of Swachh Bharat, place where PM Narendra Modi wielded broom spruced up

The NDMC workers hurried to finish digging around the area. “Modi ji started his campaign from here, and on October 2, everyone’s gaze will return here,” one of them said.

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The BJP-ruled Municipal Corporations of Delhi, torchbearers of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in the capital, claim to have spent Rs 1,760 crore on sanitation over the last one year. This includes salaries to nearly 80,000 sanitation employees, money spent on procurement of new vehicles and advertisement.

The Centre had announced assistance of Rs 500 crore to the three corporations after announcement of the sanitation mission, but it is yet to be released. The PM had announced the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in his maiden Independence Day address to the nation, saying, “… there is a big obstacle in promoting tourism and in our national character and that is – the filthiness all around us. Whether after independence, after so many years of independence, when we stand at the threshold of one and half decade of 21st century, we still want to live in filthiness?”

The corporations count the abhiyan as a success; measured in terms of dustbins, garbage collection and community toilets. The South Municipal Corporation, for instance, lists it has installed 1,400 dustbins in major markets in the city. The SDMC has also tied up with Indraprastha Gas Limited and constructed 14 toilet blocks at different locations as a part of CSR initiatives. The civic body claims these are ready to be inaugurated.

Officials said, “397 community toilet blocks have been repaired and 1,000 rickshaws have been purchased to facilitate door to door garbage collection in the city.” In East Delhi, a construction and demolition waste plant has been constructed and a waste-to-energy plant has come up in Ghazipur.

Step up efforts: Venkaiah Naidu to Delhi govt, MCDs

Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu has asked the Delhi government and the city’s municipal corporations to ensure the proper deployment and monitoring of 65,000 sanitation workers in the national capital. In a two-hour review meeting of the city administration’s performance under the ‘Swachh Bharat’ programme in Delhi, Naidu urged the government as well as civic bodies to step up their efforts.

According to the Swachh Mission data, there were 11,117 applications for the construction of household toilets in Delhi, but not a single one had been sanctioned or completed so far. “The public perception about cleanliness in the national capital is still adverse and needs to be changed at the earliest,” said Naidu.