TED NewsDesk, New Delhi. A survey was recently conducted on school toilets built by the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) in government schools. As part of the findings of this survey, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) discovered that in 75% cases, school toilets do not have standard hygienic maintenance, 72% schools don’t have running water and 30% weren’t in use due to damage or other factors.
The CAG randomly selected 2,695 toilets for a sample study, as mentioned in the CAG report tabled in the Parliament on Wednesday. The CPSEs that constructed these toilets had been instructed by the government to maintain them for three to five years. The annual expenses for the same are under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Budget.
“During the survey, the audit noticed that proper maintenance/sanitation was not available in 1,812 out of 2,326 toilets,” the CAG said.
Separate toilets were not available for girls and boys in many government schools throughout India. For this very reason, the government had asked CPSEs in 2014 to construct more than 1.40 lakh toilets within the year 2014. Roughly 53 such CPSEs had participated in this initiative and built 1,30,703 toilets, incurring a cost of ₹2,162 crores.
Sources: ToI
