New Delhi, July 22 (UNI) Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development wants the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation to pay more attention towards pace of sanitation in the low performing states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha on a war-footing.
In its report on Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin in State/UTs tabled in Parliament this week, the Parliamentary Panel said it would like to be apprised of the follow up action by the Ministry in this regard.
The Parliamentary panel said that while undergoing the sanitation coverage across the states, it found that the performance of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha are very low.
Appalled by the slackness of sanitation coverage in these States, the Committee was informed by the Ministry that it was aware of it and has given special emphasis to the States through various innovative measures.
In this context, Secretary of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation admitted before the Committee about the dismal performance of bigger States and assured the Committee that the Government will take all necessary steps and will provide extra budgetary resources also to these States to improve the situation.
The Parliamentary panel observed that the efforts made by the Government are not complete if the issue of awareness generation is left behind in this demand driven programme across the States for a pan-India increase in sanitation coverage.
It may be seen that at the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) on October 2, 2014, the sanitation coverage was 38.70 per cent. This has increased to 84.13 per cent as on May 24 this year. Since the launch of SBM (Gramin), there has been a 45.43 per cent increase in sanitation coverage as on May 24 this year.
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