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Notice to Centre on PIL for total sanitation

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre on a public interest litigation petition seeking a direction to it to implement a total sanitation campaign for urban areas under the 11th Five-Year Plan.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices R.V. Raveendran and J.M. Panchal issued the notice on the petition filed by social activist Prabhakar Deshpande of Mumbai, who personally argued his case. He quoted Jawaharlal Nehru, who had said: “The day every one of us gets a toilet to use, I shall know that our country has reached the pinnacle of progress.”

The petitioner said: “The sad tragedy is that while building toilets does not require great technology or enormous funds, Indians shamelessly defecate in public even in metros, even as most Indians flaunt expensive mobile phones.”

He said the total sanitation campaign should be extended to urban areas. The total project outlay in rural areas was Rs. 13,423 crore but owing to tardy implementation, only Rs. 3,419 crore was spent on the sanitation campaign. Lack of sanitation “leads to poor health and spread of various diseases, and compromises on the dignity and modesty of people.”

The petitioner sought a direction to implement the total sanitation campaign at a cost of Rs. 20,000 crore.

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