Swachh Bharat Abhiyan receives an allocation of Rs 9,000 crore in the 2016-17 Budget

The Union government has allocated Rs 9,000 crore for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to improve sanitation and cleanliness across the country.The campaign, one of Prime Minister Modi's pet projects, was launched on October 2, 2014 covering 4,041 statutory cities and towns. Rs 2,300 crore has been alloted for carrying out works in urban areas while the rest will be utilized to improve sanitation in India's rural pockets.

 

Bengaluru's garbage crisis needs no introduction. However, citizen groups and welfare associations have risen to the occasion and have begun managing their affairs independantly. From purchasing shredding machines to transport vehicles, many residents’ associations, especially in East Bengaluru, Kalyan Nagar, Yelahanka and Malleswaram have started managing their own solid waste with minimum interference from civic bodies. 

 

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike is wary of dumping garbage in its Kannahalli and Seegehalli waste processing plants as residents protest against dumping of city garbage in their villages by blockading incoming garbage trucks. Villagers were getting increasingly concerned about foul smell emating from the processing plants and the health hazards of staying close to them. 

 

Eram Scientific Solutions has launched a mobile application to help locate e-toilets in Chennai. Currently, there are 188 per-fabricated e-toilets across the city with close to a 110 of these up and functional. Apart from helping locate these toilets, the app also has provisions for sending feedback across to the company regarding cleanliness and other such concerns.

 

With just 3 defunct toilet blocks for 1200 hutments, residents of Mumbai's Mankhurd transit camp have been denied what is rightfully theirs - the right to adequate sanitation. While women try and make the best out of the facilities available, children and men are forced to defecate out in the open. Since the it is a transit camp, the Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation does not want to construct toilet blocks and with choked drains and overflowing closets, the danger of contracting infectious disease is dangeriously high in the area.