Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has become people's movement: Jaitley
New Delhi, Sep 15 : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday described the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBM) as "the most successful" scheme of the Modi government which has become a "people's movement".
The Minister said SBM has witnessed a "phenomenal increase" in rural sanitation from 39 per cent to 92 per cent in the last four years.
Pointing out that initially, people in the rural areas were reluctant to accept the scheme and thus required a "behavioural change", the Finance Minister said the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan mission movement has transformed into 'women movement' with women playing a leading role.
"We all knew that the dignity of women demanded the privacy of toilet," Jaitley said in his blog and that in several parts of India toilets have been named "Izzat Ghar".
However, Jaitley said "women of India are now stepping beyond their roles as mere beneficiaries of this programme to leaders of it today".
Noting the construction of toilets has always been a male bastion, the Finance Minister in his blog said in many states, thousands of rural women have been trained as masons and with the assistance of self-help groups, they are becoming a primary force in driving the state in becoming free from open defecation.
Referring to the target of making India free from open defecation by 2019 -- the 150th year of Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary -- the Finance Minister in his blog pointed to the preventive health care benefits of the scheme.
"Global experts believe the SBM will have saved over three lakh lives in the country by the time we become 'open-defecation-free' in 2019," says the blog.
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Vijayan calls Congress 'B-team' of BJP amid Rajya Sabha poll results
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday accused the Congress of acting as the "B-team" of the BJP, citing developments in the Rajya Sabha elections in Odisha and Bihar.
"The results of today's Rajya Sabha elections once again confirm the reality that the Congress party functions as the B-team of the Sangh Parivar," the veteran CPI(M) leader said in a statement here.
"While the Congress seeks votes from the people by raising slogans against the BJP, it repeatedly adopts a political approach that opens the door for the BJP's victory at crucial moments," he added.
His remarks came as voting for four Rajya Sabha seats in Odisha was held on Monday, with reports that at least five MLAs from the opposition Biju Janata Dal and Congress cross-voted in favour of a BJP-supported Independent candidate.
Vijayan said such developments showed a pattern in several states.
"This is not an isolated incident. In several states, it is the Congress that has created conditions for the BJP to gain additional Rajya Sabha seats through MLA resignations, cross-voting and political manoeuvring," he said.
Referring to Bihar, he said the political situation there had further strengthened the argument.
In Bihar, the ruling NDA made a clean sweep of all five Rajya Sabha seats in the biennial elections held on Monday.
Among those elected were Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, BJP national president Nitin Nabin, Union Minister Ram Nath Thakur, BJP leader Shivesh Kumar and Rashtriya Lok Morcha chief Upendra Kushwaha.
According to officials, at least three Congress MLAs and one from the Rashtriya Janata Dal did not turn up for voting, which helped the NDA secure victory.
"Anti-BJP slogans in public, but support for the BJP in practice -- this is the real politics of the Congress," Vijayan said.
"The Congress claiming to be the leader of secular politics while shamelessly helping the BJP is nothing but a mockery of Indian democracy," he added.
