Not one toilet built under Swachh Bharat

CAG REPORT ₹40.31 crore under the scheme has been lying ‘idle’ with govt, which shows it did not give adequate importance to programme, says audit

NEW DELHI: Delhi, which saw a mega launch of the Centre’s flagship Swachh Bharat Mission back in October 2014, has not built a single toilet from the funds allocated for the project, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has stated in a latest report.

The CAG report also found that beneficiaries of unauthorised colonies were not considered for construction of ‘household toilets’ under the project. As a result “most of habitats known for lack of toilet facilities were excluded from the mission at the planning stage itself,” the report said. This observation is significant as an estimated one-third of Delhi’s population live in unauthorised colonies.

The report, tabled in the Delhi Assembly on Tuesday, states that funds to the tune of Rs 40.31 crore, including Rs 10.08 crore of the state share, has been lying “idle”. The auditor observed that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government did not allocate the Swachh Bharat funds to its implementing agencies.

It also stated that the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board’s (DUSIB) target of making JJ basties/clusters Open Defecation Free (ODF) by the end of 2017-18 is likely not to be achieved as community toilets were not constructed under the project during the first two-and-a-half years of its implementation despite Delhi government receiving the share from Centre.

“Monitoring and evaluation mechanism prescribed in the scheme to monitor the progress of work did not function effectively. This shows that the GNCTD did not give adequate importance to implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission Scheme,” the report said.

The CAG also criticised the government along with agencies like the three municipal corporations, the DUSIB, the Delhi Cantonment Board (DCB) for “inadequacies in assessing the number of toilets required”.

The audit also said that inadequate efforts were made to educate households on availing benefits of ‘household toilets’.

“NDMC, SDMC and DCB did not assess the requirement of household toilets, but the mission funds totalling Rs 16.92 crore was released to them for construction of household toilets,” the CAG report said.

The auditing body added that the DUSIB did not receive the state share from Delhi government. “The DUSIB received (as in January, 2016) an amount of Rs 6.86 crore, including the state share of Rs 1.71 crore (25 per cent of the total cost) against Rs 41.49 crore required by them,” the CAG said.