New Delhi: Giving high priority to sanitation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said the government intends to cover every household by total sanitation by 2019 through the 'Swatchh Bharat Abhiyan' programme.
The goal set by the previous UPA government was to achieve 100 percent access to sanitation for all rural households in the country by 2022 under the programme called Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA).
Jaitley said every household is intended to be covered by total sanitation by the year 2019, the 150th year of the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi through Swatchh Bharat Abhiyan.
"Although the Central Government is providing resources within its means, the task of total sanitation cannot be achieved without the support of all," the Finance Minister said.
In the 12th Plan an outlay of Rs 34,377 crores has been provided for rural sanitation as compared to Rs 6540 crores in the 11th Plan, which is a significantly higher allocation (425 percent higher than the 11th Plan).
The Government started the Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) in 1986 to provide sanitation facilities in rural areas.
It was a supply driven, highly subsidised and infrastructure-oriented programme. As a result of deficiencies and low financial allocations, the CRSP had very little impact on the gargantuan problem.
The experience of community-driven, awareness-generating campaign based programme in some states and the results of evaluation of CRSP, led to the formulation of Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) approach in 1999.
As per the Twelfth Plan Working Group recommendation, the APL-BPL distinction and the very low incentive under the TSC have played havoc with the programme.
To accelerate the progress of sanitation in rural areas, Government had revamped the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) as the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) in the XIIth Five Year Plan.
NBA is currently being implemented in 607 rural districts across the country. NBA envisages covering the entire community for saturated outcomes with a view to create Nirmal Gram Panchayats.
