ASSOCHAM asks its members to build toilets under CSR

“We are asking our members to take a pledge along with our Prime Minister to ensure that we gain a pride of place in keeping our environment clean,” said ASSOCHAM president Rana Kapoor.

“A clean India has several unexplored social and economic benefits which must be fully tapped to the larger good as there is no point making big talk unless the brass tack issues like sanitation are tackled head on,” Kapoor said.

He said the chamber will be unveiling a series of programmes with the corporates urging them to take advantage of the wp provisions and build on a large scale toilets at public places, on the city roads, state ways, highways.

“The key also lies in maintaining after building a physical infrastructure  Sanitation is covered under Schedule VII of the Companies Act which was amended last year,” said the ASSOCHAM chief.

The involvement of professionally run NGOs would also be important. While the government has earmarked Rs 62,000 crore for the Swachch Bharat programme, the success will depend on making it run professionally with public –private-partnership.

“ While it may not be possible in the initial stage, the programme can become self-sustaining at least in cities with active involvement of the NGOs and the wp funding of the profit making corporates,” further said the ASSOCHAM president.

The chamber will also be getting involved with the state governments, local bodies and the NGOs and extending full support to the much-needed programme of the government, he added.

ASSOCHAM has also reminded its members asking them to find a business opportunity in getting involved in city waste management, an area which has so far been neglected . “There is this huge opportunity at least in 500 big cities for waste management that will include recycling and making several bio products and energy.”

A full-fledged dedicated programme for city waste management with active involvement of the local bodies will be imperative. While the multilateral organisations like the World Bank are already involved in several projects, the entire programme needs to be given a fresh look.

The clean India programme is needed even more in cities which are thronged by domestic and global tourist .  There are scores of religious cities like Hardwar, Varanasi, Bodh Gaya, Tirupati, Chitrakoot, Amritsar, Cuttack, Vrindavan, Ajmer where millions of pilgrims go but these places lack basic sanitation facilities.

Likewise, cities like Agra, Jaipur, Goa, Mumbai, Delhi, Trivandrum, Mysore, Shimla, and several others are thronged by leisure tourists. However, these places do not give us good image when it comes to basic facilities