by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Around nine crore toilets have been built across the country since October 2014 under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) and a total of 546 districts were declared Open Defecation Free (ODF), the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.
According to a written reply tabled by Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Uma Bharati in the House, a total of 8,91,21,096 individual household latrines (IHHLs) were constructed under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) from October 2, 2014, to December 7, 2018.
Among the states, the highest number of IHHLs were constructed in Uttar Pradesh, (1,70,73,682), while only 1,600 IHHLs were constructed in Daman and Diu.
In the reply to Bharatiya Janata Party MPs Bidyut Baran Mahato and Chandra Prakash Joshi, Bharati also said that a total of 546 districts were declared ODF across the nation during the last three years and the current financial year.
While 51 districts of Madhya Pradesh were declared ODF, zero districts of Goa and Tripura were declared ODF.
“Rural areas of 25 states/UTs, including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand have already been declared ODF.
“Rural areas of remaining 10 states namely Assam, Bihar, Goa, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Odisha, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are likely to become ODF by the end of March 2019,” it said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Banking, Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance, Economy, Finance, News, Politics
New Delhi : The BJP on Wednesday attacked the Congress-led UPA government for blindly giving loans and weakening the banks due to which their losses increased from Rs 18,000 crore to Rs 53,000 crore, and said the NDA government brought transparency and forced people to repay their loans.
“Swachh Bharat Mission of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not restricted only to the cleanliness of courtyards but is also about the cleanliness in our economic system,” Union Minister Piyush Goyal told a press conference here.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said that after assuming the office in 2014, the Modi government inherited an extremely fragile banking sector.
“But the Prime Minister and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley took a wise decision not to bring any such white paper and they responsibly ran the government and brought sustainable solution to only strengthen the economy,” Goyal said.
Slamming the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for giving loans without doing the fact-check of projects, Goyal said: “The UPA government started distributing loans from 2006 and the procedure went on till 2014. The bank losses increased from Rs 18,000 crore to Rs 53,000 crore in those years.”
“Due to blindly giving of loans overcapacity was created,” he said.
Citing example of the Indian Bank, Goyal said: “Same situation of the non-performing assets (NPAs) was prevalent when Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji’s government had come to power. And at that time, he brought the transparency and the Indian Bank is running in profit.”
“And today, we have also brought transparency in the NPA loans and tried to resolve the entire mess that Congress gave us,” he said.
Attacking the Congress-led government, Goyal said: “UPA blindly gave out loans and weakened the banks, but the Modi government ushered in transparency and forced all the responsible individuals to repay the loans.”
“In case they couldn’t repay the loans, we tried to resolve through Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code,” he said.
The Railway and Coal Minister also said that during the UPA government, a lot of big people took loans without taking into account the responsibility that comes along with it.
“But it is Modi government which has acted tough with these people and forced them to pay back,” he said.
Goyal further said that the strictness of the government also led to the implementation of the Fugitive Law, under which the properties of the defaulters are attached.
This is the first government which has taken strict action against the rich people to repay loan, he underlined.
Citing the achievements of his government, Goyal said: “Our government implemented the Benami Act. We brought GST instead of 40 different taxes,” the BJP leader added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
By Arun Kumar Das,
New Delhi : To commemorate 100 years of the Champaran Satyagraha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to flag off Swachhagraha Express, an exhibition train, from Motihari in Bihar next month to re-emphasise the spirit of cleanliness, or Swachhata, a value that was close to Mahatma Gandhi’s heart.
As part of the Swachh Bharat Mission, the 14-coach train is scheduled to be launched by Indian Railways on April 10 to showcase the cleaning-up efforts undertaken till date by the government and also to generate greater awareness towards cleanliness in the run-up to the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in 2019.
The Swachhagraha Express, exhibiting various aspects of the cleanliness drive and its benefits, will travel in six months to 60 stations across the country.
A collaborative effort between the ministries of railways and drinking water and sanitation, the Swachhgaraha Express will mostly touch remote stations. Its itinerary is now being finalised. The train’s journey is expected to dovetail into Modi’s pet Swachh Bharat Mission.
Consequent to the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission on October 2, 2014, by Modi, the Railways had launched “Swachh Rail, Swachh Bharat” in its bid to keep trains and stations clean.
As stated by the Modi government, the aim of the Swachh Bharat Mission is to achieve the vision of a “Clean India” by October 2, 2019, the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi and the government will use it to leverage this historic occasion to build a clean India.
“The purpose of the Swachhagraha Express is to reach out to far-flung areas, creating awareness about cleanliness, which was also a key element of the Champaran movement,” said a senior official involved with the project.
The coaches of the train will feature a detailed account of the milestones and progress achieved under the Swachh Bharat Mission and subjects such as water, hygiene and sanitation will be elaborated upon.
There will be messages on cleanliness, adverse effects on environment due to open defecation, use and maintenance of toilets, awareness about hygiene, importance of clean water in public health, and many such related issues which will be showcased to the people, including schoolchildren, during the six-month journey.
Drawing a parallel with the success of Mahatma Gandhi in making the freedom struggle a people’s movement, the Prime Minister has, on several occasions, emphasised that the objectives of the Swachh Bharat Mission can only be achieved by making it a people’s movement.
The Railways, with its vast network, plays a crucial role in the Swachh Bharat Mission. To this end, a series of measures to improve the cleanliness of stations were announced in succesive budgets since 2015. (The railway budget was merged with the general budget last year.)
The state-run transporter has also made operational a “Swachh Rail” portal to showcase cleanliness rankings of various stations and the methodology adopted for the rankings.
Railway tracks along many stretches resemble garbage dumps with leftover food, plastic bottles and paper boxes strewn all over. Discharge of human waste from trains is also a cause for concern.
“We have made all-out efforts to keep the tracks, stations clean as part of the cleanliness campaign,” said the official.
Replacing existing toilets in trains with bio-toilets and preventing open discharge on tracks are some of the measures taken to keep rail premises clean.
Several railway divisions have pressed into service mechanised systems for cleaning of tracks near stations. Besides, installation of bio-toilets in several trains have reduced the discharge of human waste on the tracks.
(Arun Kumar Das can be contacted at akdas2005@gmail.com)
—IANS
