Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 30: Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has found Jammu and Kashmir as the worst performing State under Prime Minister’s major sanitation scheme for the rural areas thereby putting a big question mark on the performance of all the concerned agencies of the State.
Keeping in view the very poor performance recorded during the past three years it is unlikely that State will meet the targets fixed by the Union Government for improving level of cleanliness through various activities.
To accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and to put focus on sanitation, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on October 2, 2014 with two Sub Missions—the Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin and the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban. Together, they aim to achieve Swachh Bharat by 2019 as a fitting tribute to the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary.
As far as Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin is concerned, the primary objective is to improve the level of cleanliness through Solid and Liquid Waste Management activities and making villages Open Defecation Free (ODF).
Though three years have lapsed since the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM-G) and only two years have left to achieve the objective yet Jammu and Kashmir has not come up to the expectations of the Union Government and the data of the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation clearly indicates that required seriousness is not being paid by all the concerned authorities of the State particularly the Department of Rural Sanitation, which is under the administrative control of Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.
According to the data of the Union Ministry, in the year 2014-15, J&K’s cumulative coverage under Individual Household Latrine (IHHL) was 23.01%. During 2015-16, J&K achieved 27.31% progress as far as providing IHHL to the rural masses is concerned. In the year 2016-17, J&K’s cumulative performance on this aspect was measured at 32.79% and it was only ahead of Bihar, Daman and Diu.
During the current year, J&K’s performance has been measured at 37.02% and it is ahead only of Bihar among all the States and Union Territories in the country. Astonishingly, Daman and Diu left not only J&K but many other States behind within a period of one year by gearing up the activities under IHHL component of SBM-G.
Under Open Defecation Free (ODF) villages coverage also, the Union Ministry has painted the performance of Jammu and Kashmir as dismal.
In 2015-16, the ODF coverage of J&K was measured at 0.27% and it was shown ahead of only 5 States. In 2016-17, J&K’s performance was measured at 1.58% only. During the current year the Union Ministry has reflected the performance of J&K as 5.61% and shown ahead of only Goa, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Puducherry.
“The dismal performance clearly indicates that Jammu and Kashmir is unlikely to meet the targets fixed by the Prime Minister”, official sources remarked, adding “this is a big blot on the performance of all the concerned authorities and establishes that the ruling dispensation only believes in highlighting the schemes of the Union Government in official statements and actually there is no focus on implementation aspect”.
How unfortunate it is that J&K is soft-paddling on a scheme which otherwise is aimed at bringing improvement in the general quality of life in the rural areas by promoting cleanliness, hygiene and eliminating open defecation; motivating communities to adopt sustainable sanitation practices and facilities through awareness creation and health education; encouraging cost effective and appropriate technologies for ecologically safe and sustainable sanitation and create significant positive impact on gender and promote social inclusion by improving sanitation especially in marginalized communities, sources further remarked.
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