The Uttar Pradesh government has spent a whopping 900 per cent above the budget allocated for building school toilets under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan with nearly 60 per cent of the total Rs 32.25 crore going just to one district.
Under the central government scheme, Rs 24,000 per unit were allocated for constructing 1,538 toilets during the five year period of 2007-08 to 2011-12 which comes to about Rs 3.69 crore while an RTI response reveals that state government spent Rs 32.25 crore for the work during the period.
Nearly 60 per cent of the total funds or Rs 19 crore released during the period went to Agra district while rest was distributed in the remaining 74 districts of the state, a RTI response from Basic Education Department has revealed.
Jyotiba Phule Nagar and Kashiram Nagar, both named on the Dalit ideologues, were among four districts which were not allocated any funds for building toilets in schools even though BSP, which christened them, was in power for almost entire 2007-12 period for which data has been provided.
The startling details received by Lucknow-based RTI activist Urvashi Sharma show that under SSA, Rs 32.25 crore of central funds were released by the state for building toilets in schools which comes to about Rs 2.09 lakh per school, nearly nine times or 900 per cent of the budget.
The response says of the total Rs 32.25 crore released, Rs 24.88 crore were utilised.
After Agra, Ghazipur, Meerut and Pratapgarh were the other leading districts which received Rs 1.61 crore, Rs 1.23 crore and 1.21 crore respectively. State capital Lucknow was given a paltry sum of Rs 33 lakh during that period.
