Construction of toilets under Swachh-Bharat to be completed before schedule

"As on March 31, we have already built 52 lakh individual household toilets and 3.2 lakh public toilets...well one year in advance of October 2019, well before October 2018."

"We would build the required amount of toilets in the urban areas of the country," he said while addressing "India Sanitation Conclave 2018", organized by industry body FICCI in New Delhi.

The Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission) aims to achieve 100% open defecation free (ODF) and scientific solid waste management in India by October 2, 2019, the 150th birthday anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The scheme is implemented by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry in urban areas and the Drinking Water and Sanitation Ministry is responsible for rural areas.

Speaking about the management of solid waste, another component of cleanliness mission, Puri said, "I am afraid that the capacity augmentation which is required is taking place at a very fast rate, but I would like to see that (waste management projects') completion."

"Land is a state subject and the only way to deal with it is through participation of stakeholders," he added.

The previous set of development goals, the Millennium Development Goals, were conceived, designed and put into a package in which the thinking was done by the West, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

These were developed in Paris and then brought as a package to UN to all member states on the basis of "take it or leave it" package, Puri said.

The beauty of the SDGs was that they were negotiated by the 193 member states and all stakeholders put together.

The MDGs succeeded because of China, and the SDGs will succeed because of India.

If India succeeds, the SDGs succeed because India is that one next bastion which is right in the center of the whole SDG exercise, he said.