50% of Swachh mission fund still lying unutilised

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s civic agencies have failed to utilise even 50% of the funds that were provided to them more than two years ago under the Centre’s Swachh Bharat Mission.

A total of ₹119.82 crore was released under various heads — community toilets, public toilets, individual household toilets (IHT), Swachh Bharat Mission, capacity building and information, education and communication programme — to the south, east and north corporations in 2015. Of this, only ₹46.11 crore has been spent so far.

Officials said due to technicalities, the agencies are finding it difficult to use the money, as components defined for realising funds doesn’t fit their jurisdiction.

“For example, construction of community toilets doesn’t fall in our j urisdiction. These are mainly constructed in slum/ jhuggi clusters, which fall under the jurisdiction of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board. Likewise, the individual household toilets are generally not required in urban areas, that’s why we didn’t receive many applications,” said a senior North DMC official.

Till August, the three municipal corporations had received 2,313 applications, of which 378 were from areas under the north corporation, 1,905 under South and 30 under the East Delhi Municipal Corporation.

After verification, the sanitation departments had rejected 1,643 applications. “That was because there was either no space for construction of new toilets or a toilet already existed in their houses,” said the official.

All these apprehensions have been shared with the ministry of urban development, he said.

The north corporation was allotted ₹46.08 crore, of which it has utilised ₹6.75 crore so far. This included ₹ 95 lakh for information, education and communication programme.

In south, a total of ₹31.76 crore was sanctioned in 2015-16 of which ₹29.68 crore was spent.

The east civic body has received ₹41.98 crore, of which ₹9.68 crore has been spent and rest ₹32.30 crore is lying unutilised.