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Government to rope in banks, financial institutions to push Swachh Bharat

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Government to rope in banks, financial institutions to push Swachh Bharat
The government is looking at roping in state-run banks and financial institutions to give a push to its Swachh Bharat campaign. The finance ministry will prod lenders to increase credit towards industries, especially small and medium enterprises, involved in sanitation products."DFS (department of financial services) & MDWS (ministry of drinking water and sanitation) join hands to increase rural sanitation credit," financial services secretary Rajiv Kumar stated in a tweet.
The department held a video conference with all public sector banks and financial institutions to step up lending for rural sanitation under priority sector lending to households, self-help groups, and small and medium enterprises.State-run banks and financial institutions have been asked to use their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds towards Swachh Bharat in the next financial year. The finance ministry has also directed all state-run lenders and insurers to provide access to clean toilets to their customers. Public sector banks have over 80,000 branches.
The government will also give a Swachh Bank award to the bank which works the most for this initiative. "DFS & MDWS to jointly institute Swachh Bank / FI Award. Selection through competition," Kumar noted in his tweet.The finance ministry will closely work with the Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation to ensure the success of this campaign.Under the Swachh Bharat campaign more than 75% households in rural India have got toilets compared to only 43.27% in 2014 when the mission kicked off.
On Thursday, the government will begin the largest-ever exercise to rank cities on cleanliness parameters, covering more than 40 crore people from 4,041cities.In his monthly radio address, Mann Ki Baat, prime minister Narendra Modi said 'Cleanliness Survey 2018', the largest in the world, will be conducted from January 4 to March 10, 2018 to evaluate cleanliness levels of urban areas.

The Economic Times, New Delhi, 03rd January 2018

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