The Delhi government has failed to make even one toilet under the Swachh Bharat Mission

• The funds were then disbursed in January 2016 to the Delhi government, but were not utilised by the six implementation bodies.
• The total number of household toilets the civic bodies had expected to construct was 11,117, which is woefully short of the Government of India’s target based on a 2011 census of 1,27,005.
  
• South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Delhi Cantonment Board and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board did not see the need to construct any public toilets.
  

A report tabled by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) at the Delhi Assembly had some astonishing revelations. Of the ₹403.1 million allocated for the construction of toilets, not one rupee has been spent. The money has been lying ‘idle’ in the non-interest generating current accounts of the government.

The Modi government’s flagship mission was launched on October 2nd, 2014. The funds were then disbursed in January 2016 to the Delhi government, but were not utilised by the six implementation bodies -- South Delhi Municipal Corporation (South DMC), North Delhi Municipal Corporation (North DMC), East Delhi Municipal Corporation (East DMC), Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Delhi Cantonment Board (DCB).

According to the report, the Aam Aadmi Party government had initially promised to construct 200,000 toilet blocks in slums/JJ clusters and unauthorised colonies in its manifesto but failed to deliver on the promise. In fact, the few toilets that were constructed were done from the Municipal Board’s own funds.

The audit pointed to a lack of planning, the skewing of some guidelines and the failure of an adequate monitoring and evaluation mechanism as reasons for the government’s inability to follow through on its commitment.

The key findings were as follows:-

• The implementation bodies underestimated the number of toilets they needed to construct. The three types of toilets that come under this scheme include - household toilets, community toilets and public toilets. According to the audit, the total number of household toilets the civic bodies had expected to construct (September 2015) was 11,117, which is woefully short of the Government of India’s target based on a 2011 census of 1,27,005.
• Out of the six civic bodies, only the East Delhi Municipal Corporation saw the need to construct household toilets in its area. And there too, only 11,117 toilets were projected to be constructed by East DMC whereas the government had projected a need for 56,734 toilets.
• The South Delhi Municipal Corporation and Delhi Cantonment Board didn’t see the need to construct any community toilets but the government had projected a requirement of 718 and 408 community toilets respectively.
• South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Delhi Cantonment Board and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board did not see the need to construct any public toilets. However, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation and East Delhi Municipal Corporation found the necessity of constructing only 205 and 120 public toilets as against 4,116 and 1,972 respectively projected by the central government.
• The South Delhi Municipal Corporation cited space constraints as a reason for not projecting any requirement for construction of community toilets and public toilets.
• “South and North DMCs did not consider unauthorized colonies for projecting requirement of Individual Household Toilets stating that they do not have jurisdiction over them thereby leaving unauthorized colonies out of Mission coverage with regard to Household Toilets.”
• The audit also pointed out that the Delhi government only spent ₹20.3 million on public awareness programme against ₹51.7 million released for this purpose. The audit said, ”this was indicative of inadequate efforts on the part of these implementing agencies to educate the households to avail the benefit of household toilets.”
• The audit noted that the finances were irresponsible managed. There were delays in releasing funds to the implementing agencies, which was exacerbated by the fact that some funds were allocated incorrectly. Furthermore, the implementation agencies did not make use of whatever funds they did receive.
• The report added that the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), which is responsible for making slums and JJ clusters open defecation free, did not receive the state’s share from the government which accounted for 60% of the amount required. The DUSIB later refunded the entire amount of ₹68.6 million it had received from the centre under the Mission.
• Finally, the audit noted that the oversight and monitoring mechanism set up to ensure the implementation of the Mission was ineffective. “The State level High Power Committee (HPC) headed by the Chief Secretary is responsible for approval of plan and projects, sanction of allocation of resources, and monitoring of outcome of the Mission. The audit noted that the HPC met four times since inception of the scheme; discussed the identification of beneficiaries; sought an action plan for scheme implementation, ordered the timely release of funds received from the GoI as well as the State share to the implementing agencies; and requested timely submission of utilisation certificate. Many of these issues were discussed repeatedly in every meeting without much progress thereon.”