UP spent 9 times the budget allocation for school toilets
23 Apr, 2013The reply to an application filed under the Right to Information has revealed that the state government of Uttar Pradesh has spent around nine times more than the budget allocated for constructing school toilets under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.
The central government scheme aimed to construct 1, 538 toilets in schools during the five year period from 2007-08 to 2011-12. The fund earmarked for each toilet was Rs. 24,000 thus making a total allocation of Rs. 3.69 crores.
However, the RTI reply from Basic Education Department states that the state government spent Rs. 32.25 crore on this work during the said period i.e. 900 per cent above the budget allocated for the purpose.
More so, around 60 per cent of the total expenditure was only for one district – Agra – and remaining 40 percent was spent on 69 districts while four districts were not allotted any funds for the purpose.