Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh in his previous avatar as environment minister made the famous statement that India should get a Nobel Prize for filth. Now he seems to have taken a bigger interest in teaching Indians cleanliness, by pressuring the finance ministry and Planning Commission to allocate more funds for the total sanitation programme to construct toilets. His formula is that the Rs 20,000 crore allocated for water supply projects should be matched by the same amount for sanitation, which currently gets just Rs 2,000 crore. Ramesh, who is now the favourite chief guest for all development report launches, whether by the World Bank, Planning Commission or UNDP, made the point in all three platforms.
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