Maharashtra leads the way in toilet construction

New Delhi: Maharashtra has constructed the maximum number of individual household toilets under the Centre’s flagship Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) scheme, followed by Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, according to official data. Till November last year, as many as 42.72 lakh household toilets have been constructed against the target of 66.42 lakh, recording an achievement of nearly 64 per cent.

The government lauched Swachh Bharat Mission in October 2, 2014 with an aim of eliminating open defecation, manual scavenging and scientific management of municipal waste by October 2, 2019. The Centre is focusing on construction of toilets to make the cities open defecation free by 2019.

Till November last year, Maharashtra constructed 6.33 lakh individual household toilets, while Gujarat built 5.60 lakh and Madhya Pradesh 4.93 lakh. The BJP is in power in these states. According to revised guidelines in Ocotber last year, the states have to contribute a minimum of Rs 2,667 towards individual toilets to match the central share of Rs 4,000 per beneficiary.

For north eastern and Himalayan states, the central share is Rs 10,800 for construction of each household toilet and state’s share is Rs 1,200 per beneficiary. For UTs with an elected government, the Centre will contribute Rs 4000, while the UTs share will be Rs 1,333 per beneficiary. For UTs without an elected government, the Centre will contribute 100 per cent funding of Rs Rs 5,333 per household toilets.

According to the ministry data, Tamil Nadu could construct 4.29 lakh household toilets, Chhattisgarh 2.97 lakh, West Bengal 2.80 lakh, Rajasthan 2.64 lakh, Jharkhand 2.29 lakh, Uttar Pradesh 2.28 lakh and Andhra Pradesh 2.03 lakh, Tripura could construct only 184 household toilets, Andaman and Nicobar Islands 384, Delhi 361, Goa 471, Daman and Diu 671 and Meghalaya 817.

Maharashtra also consructed the maximum number of community and public toilets (no. of seats) with figures nearly touching 1 lakh, followed by Madhya Pradesh 22,350; Uttar Pradesh 17,205; Chhattisgarh 17,083 and Delhi 17,008.