Govt putting in place online tracking system for Swachh drive

Stepping up efforts to make Swachh Bharat Mission a success, Urban Development Ministry will put in place management information systems (MIS) that will enable the Prime Minister's Office to chart the progress of various activities across India as part of the cleanliness drive.
Urban Development Secretary Shankar Aggarwal today discussed with senior officials of the ministry the IT-based reporting and monitoring mechanisms for the drive, which was launched as a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Aggarwal said that user-friendly MIS should be evolved for 24x7 monitoring of the mission's progress, according to a senior UD ministry official.
As per the plan, all the states and 4,041 urban habitations to be covered under the mission should be enabled to regularly upload information regarding the progress of work in respect of construction of household and public and community toilets along with solid waste management and awareness generation activities.

The official said the ministry will also enable online submission of proposals and approvals for various projects under the mission besides electronic submission of utilisation certificates and release of funds for speedy implementation of works.
Aggarwal directed the officials concerned to enable urban local bodies to directly submit their proposals to the UD ministry to save on time.

The ministry will finalise guidelines for implementation of the Rs 67,000 crore mission in urban areas under which over 1 crore household toilets, besides over 5 lakh public and community toilet seats, are to be constructed by 2019.
The guidelines to be issued will contain indicative standards for construction of toilets with information on bio-digesters and other technologies for solid waste management.

Also, solid waste management facilities are to be put in place that would benefit over 30 crore urban people, he said.
Aggarwal stressed on the importance of 'awareness generation' activities for behavioural modification so that the urban poor begin to use toilets. He said that these activities should be launched across the country by putting in place a special implementation cell.