Irregularities In GHMC Swachh Bharat Funds Expenditure ?? RTI’s Shocking Reply

It has been six months and several crore rupees have been spent, but it is unclear if even a single new toilet has been built –

A part of the central funds were used for travel of MLAs and municipal officers, who visited Delhi and Nagpur to study the solid waste management system. Money was also spent on publicity in newspapers about the Swachh Hyderabad program.

From the Rs 7 crore received from the central government towards the Swachh Bharat mission, not a single toilet has been constructed in the city. Instead plastic mobile toilets have been placed in various localities by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation(GHMC), revealed an RTI response.

 

The Swachh Bharat mission received Rs 6.49 crore and Swachh Hyderabad received Rs 1.57 crore, a total of Rs 8.06 crore. Meanwhile the Rs 200 crore announced by the state government for 400 Swachh units haven’t been executed yet.

Mr Sambi Reddy, who filed the RTI query, said, “Not a single toilet was built in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits after receiving funds to the tune of Rs 7 crore under the Swachh Bharat mission. Within GHMC limits, most slums and government colleges don’t have the minimum number of public toilets. Even after one year of campaigning and spending Rs 7 crore, not even one toilet has been built. In 2014, the GHMC had announced to build 100 public toilet complexes, which was conveniently ignored. When no public facility is built and provided, how can Swachh Hyderabad be achieved? Over 40 per cent of government schools don’t have toilets and no progress has been made on this front even with funds being available from Sarvasiksha Abhiyan and Swachh Bharat mission.”

The RTI response revealed that more than 50 per cent of the Rs 8 crore was spent in tours to Nagpur, publicity in newspapers and high spending meetings. With this money, the GHMC could have built close to 7,000 toilets at a cost of Rs 12,000 per toilet.

The city has only 186 toilets and 50 bio-urinals recently installed by the GHMC authorities. The GHMC was supposed to set up 1,000 mobile toilets in the city, but only 50 have been installed.

It is  a known fact that the former GHMC Commissioner was shunted out by the National Election Commission new committee that came into existence due to the irregularities found in the voter’s name deletion isssue recently. We wonder what amount of Swacch bharat has actually gone into the swachh activities than filling the pockets of the babus.

We Leave it to the readers to judge.

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News Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle