Swachh Bharat Mission monitoring centre to come up at Rajghat

The Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra will be set up by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation at the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, Rajghat, to monitor the progress of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Speaking at the culmination of ‘Swachhata Pakhwada’, a fortnight-long cleanliness drive, Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma said his Ministry was considering providing space at the Rajghat for the Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra to mark the centenary of the Champaran Satyagraha.

Mr. Tomar said the Swachh Bharat Mission was a top priority of the government and that it had become a national mission for people as well.

Since its launch on October 2, 2014, till date more than four crore individual household toilets have been built and 1.94 lakh villages and 135 districts become open defecation free (ODF).

Apart from Sikkim, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh, which are ODF states, six to seven more States will soon declare them ODF as work was going on a rapid scale, Mr. Tomar said.

The total budget for SBM has now been increased to ₹19,300 crore with a central share of ₹14,000 crore. A sum of ₹5,300 crore is the budgetary provision declared by all government departments, Mr. Tomar said.