Swachh Bharat 'a propaganda for Modi government': Jairam Ramesh

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh alleged Saturday the Swachh Bharat campaign was being used by the Narendra Modi-led government for propaganda and the scheme was a success only on hoardings and advertisements.

The former minister of drinking water and sanitation, the nodal ministry for the campaign, said the focus of the cleanliness campaign has been the "celebration of missed targets, neglected issues and repeated lies."

"Making false claims, misusing government machinery for propaganda and managing events and headlines are the hallmarks of the Modi style governance. Every year on October 2 and at every possible opportunity, ministers and BJP leaders line up for photo-ops with brooms in their hands and make grandiose claims about Swachch Bharat.

"Swachh Bharat is a success only on hoardings and advertisements," Ramesh said in a statement titled 'Sach Bharat'.

He also alleged there has been no progress on cleanliness and the toilets built have not been used.

He claimed toilets were built indiscriminately, despite them not being used due to lack of other supporting amenities. He quoted a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)report which said: "household water connections were not available and, therefore, toilets constructed under the mission could not be used."

Ramesh said there cannot be clean India without clean drinking water which he said had been neglected by this government.

He also questioned the Union government's claims that Gujarat was open defecation free, stating that various reports have found them to be false.

On the issue of manual scavenging, Ramesh said while official records accounted for 13,000 manual scavengers in 2017, an inter-ministerial task force in 2018 has counted 53,256 people were involved in the work.

"The horror of manual scavenging and caste discrimination is a reality in PM Modi's Swachh Bharat," he said.

The Congress leader also pointed out that the budgetary allocation for the scheme has been short of the requirement.

As against a demand of Rs 14,000 crore in 2016-2017, only Rs 9,000 crore was allocated in the budget which was further revised to Rs 10,500 crore, he said, adding there was an unspent balance of Rs 9,890 crore as of May 2018.

Ramesh also said such was the level of cleanliness that the 235-year-old Ramlila in Varanasi was put on hold after the actors playing Ram, Lakshman, Bharat and Shatrughan were diagnosed with diarrhoea.

"If only the Modi government had focussed on clean drinking water and sanitation, the tradition of Ramlila in Varanasi would have stood tall," he said.

He said things had come to such a pass that no independent agency trusts official figures numbers on ODF anymore.

"This is in direct contrast with how the UPA implemented its flagship programme MGNREGA. Social audits, independent studies and research were actively encouraged...Neither PM Modi's niyat nor our country will be safe anytime soon," he said.

(With inputs from agencies.)