Its hard to mark up total sanitation in Bihar by 2012

Total Sanitation Campaign to provide sanitation in all rural areas of Bihar by 2012 has not been up to the mark, according to a CAG report. Principal Accountant General (Bihar) Preman Dinaraj told reporters today that the programme, launched by the Centre in 1999 and was to be implemented in a time-bound manner, suffered at various stages due to the non-availability of reliable baseline data and slow and tardy implementation. The other problems faced by the programme were expenditure on various components, deficient information on education and communication activities, lack of community participation and proper monitoring. The Centre had approved Rs 1967.11 crore for all 38 districts of the state for the programme but the expenditure against available funds ranged between 20 and 54 per cent during 2005-10, the CAG said in its report for the period ended on March 31, 2010. An amount of Rs 13.45 crore out of Rs 26.40 crore released as state share during December 2007 and March 2010 for the programme in the state was utilised for construction of latrines for above poverty line families in Bihar in contravention of the guidelines, it said.