February 17, 2026 11:22 am (IST)

Make this your homepage

Health

Actor Rajpal Yadav granted interim bail in ₹9-crore cheque bounce case | Learn AI or become redundant: Microsoft India President issues stark message | India’s wholesale inflation rises to 1.81% in January as manufacturing prices surge | 'India at forefront of AI revolution': PM Modi welcomes world leaders to Delhi summit | Rs 5,000 to women ahead of Tamil Nadu polls! Vijay slams Stalin, says: ‘take the money, blow the whistle’ | Modi congratulates Tarique Rahman as BNP clinches majority in Bangladesh polls | Bangladesh Polls: Tarique Rahman-led BNP secures 'absolute majority' with 151 seats in historic comeback | BJP MP files notice to cancel Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha membership, seeks life-long ban | Arrested in the morning, out by evening: Tycoon’s son walks free in Lamborghini crash case | ‘Why should you denigrate a section of society?’: Supreme Court pulls up ‘Ghooskhor Pandat’ makers

Government urges banks and MFIs to pitch in for Swachhta Mission

India Blooms News Service | | Feb 09, 2016, at 07:50 pm

#Government urges banks # MFIs # Swachhta Mission

New Delhi, Feb 9 (IBNS) Union Minister of Rural Development and Drinking Water and Sanitation, Birender Singh, on Tuesday, urged banks and micro-finance institutions to come forward in a big way for credit disbursal to achieve the goal of Swachh Bharat Mission of making India Open Defecation Free by 2019.

The minister was addressing a conference on Innovative Financing for Clean India.

He said that BPL families are eligible for an incentive of Rs 12,000 for toilet construction but to achieve universal coverage, there is need for easy financing by banks and other financial institutions.

He also said that the finance ministry has included water and sanitation as new sectors for priority sector lending by commercial banks, but this monumental policy change must translate from intent to action.

Asserting that sanitation is closely linked with poor health, low education status, malnutrition and poverty, Singh informed that since the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission on Oct 2, 2014, more than 14.7 million toilets were constructed in the rural areas, but still close to 50 percent of our rural population do not have access to a toilet.

He said that the solid and liquid waste management component of the Swachh Bharat Mission provides scope for small and medium private sector institutions to engage in waste management and improvisation of village environmental management infrastructure.

Secretary, Rural Development, JK Mohapatra, also urged the banks and micro-finance institutions to extend credit for sanitation and water sectors by saying that the poor are not only credit-worthy and enterprising, but they are responsible borrowers too.

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.

India
International

Related Images

CMRI Hospital celebrates Patients' Experience Week with Walkathon Oct 09, 2025, at 06:21 pm

Kolkata: BITM hosts an interactive session with students to observe Shubhanshu Shukla's return to Earth Jul 16, 2025, at 07:45 pm

West Bengal government airlifts ailing Gangasagar pilgrims to Kolkata Jan 13, 2025, at 12:45 pm