NAMASTE SCHEME - GOVERNANCE
News: Budget
2023 | Finance Minister pitches for 100% switch to mechanized sewer cleaning in
all cities and towns
What's in the news?
● Coming
in with a nearly ₹100 crore allocation in this year’s Budget for the newly
christened NAMASTE (National Action Plan for Mechanized Sanitation Ecosystem)
scheme, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said that the Union
government is looking to enable 100%
mechanical desludging of septic tanks and sewers in all cities and towns.
NAMASTE Scheme:
● It
provides to enable 100% mechanical desludging of septic tanks and sewers in all
cities and towns.
Administrative Control: Ministry of Social Justice.
Aim:
● To
transition from manhole to machine-hole
mode.
● Enhanced
focus will be provided for scientific
management of dry and wet waste.
Features:
● It
subsumes the already existing Self
Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS).
● The
goal was to eliminate hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.
● The
Social Justice Ministry intends to first enumerate the number of people engaged
in hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks across 500 AMRUT cities (Atal
Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) and then proceed with its
plans.
● The
NAMASTE scheme, among other things, provides for capital subsidies to sewer cleaners on the purchase of sanitation
machinery, training of workers with a stipend amount, and loan subsidies with capped interest rates on sanitation equipment.