New Delhi Mar 24 PTI A parliamentary standing committee has sought to know why despite requisite measures people were dying while cleaning sewers and septic tanks as it stressed plugging loopholes in policies for their rehabilitation without delayAccording to official data 325 people died while cleaning sewers and septic tanks during the last five yearsA parliamentary standing committee report tabled in the Lok Sabha on Thursday said it is unable to comprehend the reasons why the initiatives of the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment were not making the requisite impactThere are various schemes such as skill development programme loans at concessional rates credit-linked upfront capital subsidy implemented by the department to stop manual scavengingThe committee is surprised to note that despite all these measures deaths of persons while cleaning sewer and septic tanks continues even today it saidThe panel mentioned that it believes the National Action Plan for mechanized Ecosystem initiated in coordination with the line ministries would help ease out the problem of manual cleaning once all municipal bodies are made aware of the same and encouraged to implement mechanical cleaningIn the report the committee noted that it would like the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment to set up a mechanism for periodic scrutiny of the scheme as there is a strong need to plug loopholes affecting its efforts without further delayThe committee would also like the budgetary allocation meant for the implementation of the schemes to be enhanced instead of reducing them at the revised stage it saidThe parliamentary panel also expressed disappointment over the department spend only Rs 287342 crore on various welfare schemes administered by them till December 31 2021 out of the revised estimate of Rs 10180 crore during the year 2021-22Noting the reasons submitted by the department for the slow pace of expenditure the panel stated that while cooperation from state governments is a time-taking process the department should have been more proactive to obtain orders for the continuation of various schemesNevertheless assuming that the ball has now been set rolling the committee hopes that the initiatives taken by the department would certainly streamline the system and provide maximum benefit to the needy beneficiaries with funds releasing on time leaving no scope for their misuse The panel observed that the budget of the department was downsized at the revised estimate stage in the last two years as the budget estimate of Rs 1010357 crore and Rs 1051762 crore was reduced to Rs 820756 crore and Rs 10180 crore at a revised stage during 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectivelyThe committee is concerned that even a reduced budget was not utilized fully it said PTI UZM NSD

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