The government on Thursday said it cannot slap penalty for not implementing the Swachh Bharat Mission without first creating awareness and establishing necessary infrastructure.

"We are having three-pronged strategy. First, trying to educate people and change mindset, second one is creating infrastructure. The third and last option which has not yet been tried is penalisation. Certain countries like Singapore have it. But I cannot straightaway go to that system without creating infrastructure," Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha.

"If you want to go for urination in Connaught Place area (in Delhi) and if there is no public toilet anywhere, you cannot ask him to go back to his native place and do it there. We have to create infrastructure also. We are doing both," Naidu said.

Noting that delineation of duty for non-performance of the officer or employees concerned a big and sensitive issue, the Minister said, "We have been sensitising the urban local bodies to see accountability is brought into the system." In a federal system, it is the urban local body, panchayats or municipal body which have to lead in this campaign, supervise and monitor it, he added.

He was replying to a supplementary query raised by Vandana Chavan (NCP) on non-implementation of the mission at local level and if there is a possibility to fix accountability and impose penalty. Replying to another supplementary on impact of advertisements on the mission, Naidu said, "Sir, impact cannot be quantified in such short time though I understand purport of the question. "

Listing down achievements

"It cannot be quantified in short duration. But at the same time, 4.17 lakh for girl children in schools. With regard to urban areas also, the momentum is catching up day by day," he said. The government is trying to changing behaviour through various campaigns through print and electronic media.

Spiritual gurus, leaders and icons of cricket, sports and industry are also being engaged, Naidu added. To another query by BJP member Basawaraj Patil that the mission would remain unsuccessful without banning plastic, he said, "Banning plastics is not related to my ministry. We are getting demands and it is an important issue. I will convey this serious issue to the concerned ministry."

Noting that the mission is gradually turning into a mass movement for cleanliness, Naidu said the Centre has released so far Rs 1,641.57 crore to states for implementing the urban component of the mission, while Rs 7,631.47 crore under the rural component. Against the target of constructing 25 lakh individual household latrines upto March 2016, work has commenced on around 23.25 lakh and 10.28 lakh have been completed, the minister said in his written reply.

Work has commenced on 1.34 lakh public toilet seats and 35,2016 have been constructed against the target of contructing one lakh community and public toilet seats in urban areas, he said quoting reports from the state governments. In the area of Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM), against the target of achieving 100 per cent door to door collection in 50 per cent of the wards, 43.92 per cent of the wards have door-to-door collection as reported by states.

Water to wealth initiative

Under water-to-weath initiative, the Minister said that the policy on promotion of city compost has been approved under which provision has been made to provide market development assistance of Rs 1,500 per tonne of city compost for enabling scaling up production and consumption of the product. The chemical fertiliser companies have been mandated to co-market city compost made out of municipal solid waster along with chemical fertilisers, he added.

The Minister further said that the Power Ministry has amended the Electricity Tariff Policy to include a provision that distribution licensees should compusorily procure 100 per cent power produced from all the waste-to-wealth initiative plans in the state and at the tariff determined by appropriate commission.

For the recycling and reuse of construction and demolition waster, the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) has amended the IS 383 -- Specification for coarse and fine aggregates, enabling the use of recycled aggregates in construction activities.

"These interventions of SBM in waste-to-weath initiative would give a big boost to the recovery, reuse and recycling of municipal solid waste so that dumping, landfilling and pollution is brought down," the Minister said.