Delhi: Not one toilet built under Swachh Bharat, says CAG
What's the story
The CAG has come down heavily on the Delhi Government for not constructing a single toilet since the inception of Swachh Bharat Mission in October'14.
Its report, presented by Deputy-CM Manish Sisodia in the Assembly yesterday, said that the AAP-led government delayed allocating Rs. 40.31 crore central funds to the implementing agencies and also showed inadequacies in calculating the required number of toilets.
Noteworthy
10% of Delhi households don't have toilet facility: CAG report
The CAG noted that though 10% of Delhi households don't have toilet facility, the implementing agencies "didn't see the necessity of constructing household toilets."
Moreover, 'EDMC found necessity of constructing only 11,117 household toilets against Center-projected 56,734."
Additionally, unauthorized colonies were not even considered, thus 'habitats known for lack of toilet facilities were excluded from the Mission at planning stage itself.'
Sad state
'State-level oversight and monitoring mechanism of the Mission failed too'
The auditor noted that the Chief Secretary-led State-level High Power Committee (HPC) under the oversight and monitoring mechanism of the Mission too failed in its function.
HPC met four times, where the Mission was discussed at length, but with no outcome.
'The HPC directed the DMCs to identify the beneficiaries in unauthorized colonies but DMCs decided not to consider these colonies as their jurisdiction.'
CAG report
None of the implementing agencies utilized funds allocated to them
The report said that North-DMC, East-DMC, South-DMC, NDMC, DCB and DUSIB received Rs. 40.31-crore funds, including Rs. 10.08-crore state's share, but it remained unused till March'17.
DUSIB, responsible for building toilets in slums, wanted Rs. 41.49-crore but got just Rs. 6.86-crore, so it refunded the entire amount.
Meanwhile, CAG said municipal corporations building toilets using their resources cannot be considered under Mission guidelines.
Quote
SDMC denies CAG report, but rest remain silent
Denying the report, SDMC's PRO Radha Krishna said, "We have used excess funds, I do not know how the CAG report claims that we have failed to build the toilets." However, spokespersons of other municipal corporations could not be contacted for comments.