Govt may miss toilet construction target

With just 1.21 lakh toilets constructed so far, the government may miss the target of constructing 4.19 lakh toilets under the <g data-gr-id="28">Swachh</g> Vidyalaya campaign, an HRD ministry initiative. The government is racing against time to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of ensuring toilets in all schools in the country by Independence Day this year.

 “Presently 1.21 toilets have been constructed, while construction of 2 lakh toilets are in advance stage against the total target of 4.19 lakh,” School Education Secretary Vrinda Sarup said on Tuesday at a press meet called on to spell out the achievements of HRD ministry on completion of Modi government’s one-year in office.

“Well what I can see from monitoring... a lot of <g data-gr-id="22">energy</g> is there among people towards completion of the toilets,” she told reporters when asked if she was confident of meeting the July deadline. HRD Minister Smriti Irani was away in Amethi to celebrate the occasion. In his Independence Day speech last year, Modi had promised that “Next year when we stand here, every school should have toilets for girls and boys”.

She said the Ministry was regularly monitoring the developments with the states in fulfilling <g data-gr-id="26">mission</g> which is also being supported by central PSUs and private players. The PSUs have committed to construct 1.67 lakh toilets and 4,562 toilets by <g data-gr-id="24">private</g> sector. Another 15,852 toilets have to be constructed under the <g data-gr-id="21">Swachh</g> Bharat Kosh initiative.

Among the states, West Bengal has maximum number of toilets that has to be constructed by June 30.