Swachh Bharat Mission in all districts

Under the initiative of Nagaland Governor, P.B. Acharya, the Swachh Bharat Mission would soon be launched in all the 11 districts where 40 toilets would be constructed in each district. At the personal initiative of Governor P.B. Acharya, a businessman from Mumbai has volunteered to construct 400 toilets in the state. 

According to DIPR, at the meeting of the nine eminent personalities of the state chaired by Nagaland Governor P.B. Acharya, the nine eminent personalities were nominated and selected as ambassadors for different districts to carry forward the Mission in the state.

Acharya encouraged the Swachh Bharat team to be brand ambassadors in making Nagaland the best and healthy state. In this regard, the Governor chose the mission’s theme to be “Service To Man Is Service To God”.

Governor also advised the members to form a committee and to identify land for construction of 40 toilets in each of the 11 districts. 

He emphasized on the need to motivate and create awareness among the mass towards living a clean and healthy life.

Meanwhile, Commissioner & Secretary to Governor, Sanjay Kumar (IAS), highlighted the objectives of Swachh Bharat Mission during the meeting.

The mission is focused to eliminate open defecation, eradication of manual scavenging, modern and scientific municipal solid waste management, to effect behavioural change regarding healthy sanitation practices, General Awareness about sanitation and its linkage with public health, capacity Augmentation for ULB’s to create an enabling environment for private sector participation in Capex (Capital Expenditure) and Opex (Operation and Maintenance).

Editor in chief of Nagaland Post, Geoffrey Yaden informed in the meeting that a separate column for Swachh Bharat would be given in Nagaland Post where any activity plan for any district would be highlighted.

Nagaland Governor, P.B Acharya was amongst the nine persons personally picked Prime Minister of India to lead the nation-wide mission. The members were then empowered to nominate nine more members from respective states for effective network in carrying out the mission.

The five-year Swachh Bharat Mission is to be implemented at a total cost of Rs 62,009 crore with a targeted construction of 1.04 crore household toilets, 2.51 lakh community toilet seats and 2.55 lakh public toilet seats besides assisting 37 crore urban people in solid waste management.

The mission was launched on October 2, 2014 with the objective of ensuring cleanliness in all the 4,041 statutory cities and towns of the country by October 2, 2019, which marks the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, who had emphasised the importance of cleanliness soon after his return to India from South Africa.

Construction of toilets is accorded priority under the mission to enable open defecation free urban areas. During 2014-15, a total of about Rs 900 crore had been sanctioned by the Union Ministry of Urban Development and an amount of about Rs 700 crore was released to States/UTs based on proposals received under the mission.