Sarvesh Kaushal, Chief Secretary, Punjab today chaired a meeting of High Powered Committee under Swachh Bharat Mission. This committee has been formed under Swachh Bharat Mission of Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India for management of the Swachh Bharat Mission at State and Urban Local Body’s level and also for finalization and implementation of State Sanitation Strategy for the State and respective City Sanitation plan. During the meeting, Secretary Local Government explained that this scheme of Swachh Bharat Mission (urban) has been divided into six components namely Construction of Household Toilets, Construction of Community Toilets, Construction of Public Toilets, Solid Waste Management, Public Awareness and Capacity Building. It was further informed that total Rs 381.18 crores have already been allocated to the State under this scheme during this mission period till 2nd October 2019 and Rs. 41.40 crores have already been released in last financial year.
Secretary Local Government informed the committee that 1.96 lakhs household toilets shall be constructed in the State for which 11711 applications have been received from various Districts. On this, Chief Secretary instructed the Department to immediately run an effective mass awareness campaign to educate people about this scheme, eligibility conditions and application process of this scheme. He further instructed the Department to complete the field survey and application process under this scheme in next 4 weeks so that this year target of constructing 47216 household toilets can be completed on time.
Further under this scheme, 3251 Community toilet seats and 7673 Public Toilet seats will be constructed. The Department of Local Government was asked to complete a detail survey and identify the locations of these toilets across the State. Department of Local Government was further asked to prepare a roadmap and action plan in next 10 days for the construction of these toilets and also for the maintenance of these toilets. It was discussed that the model followed by Union Territory and Delhi must be studied and an option of outsourcing model such as “Sulabh Shauchalaya may be explored for operations and maintenance of these toilets after the construction”. It was informed by Secretary, Local Government that the State’s initiatives of Solid Waste Management are also being dovetailed under this scheme so that the funds under this scheme can be effectively utilized.
The prominent amongst those who were present included Mr. N S Kalsi, Additional Chief Secretary, Public Works Department, Mr. C Roul, Principal Secretary School Education, Mr. Vishwajit Khanna, Principal Secretary Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Jaspal Singh, Secretary Expenditure, Mr Ashok Gupta, Secretary Local Government, Mr. J Balamurugan, Joint Managing Director, Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company , Mr. Rohit Kakkar, Deputy Advisor, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India and other officials from various concerned departments.