In order to make Uttar Pradesh an open defecation free state, the Yogi Adityanath government has decided to bring new incentives which include giving cash as well as “Gandhigiri”. The incentive will be given to those who play a prominent role in preventing open defecation in their respective areas.
Under 'Gandhigiri', flowers or garlands will be given to those who play a key role in the campaign. A special screening of Akshay Kumar’s film, Toilet Ek Prem Katha, will also be done in that village or area which gets an ODF tag.
The government has made it official and, in this connection, Chanchal Tiwari, additional chief secretary of state has written a letter to various district magistrates and divisional commissioners in UP.
The objective of the government is to make the state completely free from open defecation by October 2 next year. Rs 5,000 cash award will be given to a village headman of the first panchayat to get an ODF status. Similarly, at the district level, the first 10 districts that make 25 village panchayats open defecation free, the district magistrates will get Rs 50,000, chief development officers (CDO) will get Rs 30,000 and district panchayat officer will get Rs 20,000. At divisional commissioner level, this incentive goes up to Rs 1 lakh.
The decision to introduce these incentives has been taken by a team comprising officials of the state sanitation mission and headed by the chief secretary, the senior most IAS officer of the state. The scheme will be effective from the current financial year.
The Union government had introduced cash incentives in 2005 under its Nirmal Gram Puraskar scheme, but it was discontinued in 2015 following complaints regarding it effective implementation. Under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, the cash incentive varied from Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh for every village panchayat if all the houses in that village panchayat were made open defecation free.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his Swachh Bharat Mission in 2014, the earlier scheme was done away with.
