Rs 9k cr World Bank support for Swachh Bharat

The Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has accepted the support of $1.5 billion (about Rs 9,000 crore) from World Bank for Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin or SBM-G.

The project basically provides for incentivizing states on the basis of their performance in the existing SBM-G. Incentivization of states was approved by the Cabinet while approving the SBM-G on September 24, 2014. The current approval provides for the mechanism of such incentivisation through World Bank credit, Minister of Communications & Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said after a cabinet meeting in Delhi.

Under the approved project, the performance of the states will be gauged through certain performance indicators, called the disbursement-linked Indicators (DLIs). The three DLIs are: reduction in the prevalence of open defecation; sustaining open defecation free (ODF) status in villages; and increase in percentage of rural population served by improved solid and liquid waste management (SLWM).