Cities to be ranked as per sanitation performance

In a move to make cities cleaner, the urban development ministry will encourage funding of sanitation projects from existing schemes like Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and Urban Infrastructure Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT). “States will be encouraged to prepare state-level sanitation strategies and identified cities will be urged to prepare model city sanitation plans for which Centre will provide assistance for the preparation of detailed project reports,” urban development secretary M Ramachandran said. Centre has also decided to institute an annual award scheme for cities as part of the National Urban Sanitation Policy. “Cities will be rated on various parameters related to sanitation by independent agencies and will be given award for excellence in performance,” the UD secretary said. UD ministry will commission independent agencies to carry out surveys of all cities and publish the sanitation ratings. Sanitation policy aims at transforming all towns and cities into 100% sanitised. India’s urban population stood at 285 million in 2001 and 26% of urban households did not have access to individual sanitation facilities. and almost 50 million people were forced to defecate in the open.