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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Ramesh holds up Bihar toilet model

Ramesh holds up Bihar toilet model

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published Published on Oct 30, 2013   modified Modified on Oct 30, 2013
-The Telegraph


New Delhi: Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh today asked every state to "follow" the Bihar model of linking housing benefits to toilets as a possible solution to the chronic problem of poor sanitation in Indian villages.

The Union minister's praise, weeks after he had accused Narendra Modi of being a copycat toilet crusader, appeared to be aimed at giving a leg-up to chief minister Nitish Kumar, a potential ally for the Congress in its battle against the BJP mascot.

At a meeting with state rural development secretaries here, Ramesh held up as an example the Bihar government's policy decision not to sanction under the government's Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) scheme any house that does not have a provision for a toilet.

"This year, Bihar has taken a policy decision, no IAY house will be built without a toilet. So we have recommended the Bihar model to all states. Today, I met all the state government secretaries and asked them to follow the Bihar model," Ramesh told reporters after the meeting.

Under the scheme, the Centre gives deserving below-poverty-line (BPL) households Rs 70,000 each so that they can stay in a pucca house. But the sanction at the local level has to come from panchayat officials under the state government concerned.

The plan for this year is to cover 30 lakh households, including 7.3 lakh in Bihar, 3.6 lakh in Uttar Pradesh, 2.3 lakh in Bengal and 1.6 lakh in Odisha.

The toilets are being constructed under the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) scheme of the Union ministry of drinking water and sanitation. The assistance a beneficiary gets is around Rs 10,000. Part of the help comes from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Ramesh said he wanted to make a "special mention" of Bihar because it had "converged" these two schemes with the IAY, the housing project.

The rural development ministry had earlier praised the Bihar government's scheme of planting trees on village roads built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana by using MGNREGA funds. The ministry has asked states to follow this model too.

Early this month, Ramesh had said Modi's enlightenment on the need for proper sanitation had come very late, a day after the Gujarat leader had declared that his priority was not to build temples but toilets. Ramesh also accused Modi of using the very words he himself had used last year.

According to figures available, nearly 60 per cent of the country's rural residents defecate in the open, which Ramesh had said was a "blot" and a "shame". Of the 2.4 lakh gram panchayats in the country, only 28,000 are nirmal (clean) gram panchayats - where every house has a latrine. In Bengal, the figure is 1,077 nirmal villages out of 3,352.

Ramesh said his ministry has got "firm commitments" on building toilets from major states.


The Telegraph, 30 October, 2013, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1131030/jsp/nation/story_17510732.jsp#.UnCLGVPcjco


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