Sri Lanka: A country trapped in debt

[velu]

 

Quote

 

Image captionHambantota port was funded by Chinese money

China is investing billions of dollars in infrastructure and developments in Sri Lanka, but many local citizens feel the country is being sold to the Chinese.

Normally the roads leading to Asian ports are bustling. Trucks loaded with cargo. Small shops where lorry drivers and workers take a tea break.

Hambantota port in southern Sri Lanka is starkly different.

Despite being open for seven years, the access road looks barely touched. And when we eventually found it (signage is not its strong point, and locals seemed pretty uncertain of its whereabouts too) ours was the only vehicle.

Except for the few security staff accompanying us, there was no-one at the site. A car carrier eased its way out of the port, after dropping off vehicles from Asia's auto giants. But the next ship wasn't due for two days.

And for a port that cost more than $1bn (£770m), that is just not enough business.

'Unaffordable'

Hambantota was built by a Chinese company and funded by Chinese loans.

But now Sri Lanka is struggling to repay that money, and so has signed an agreement to give a Chinese firm a stake in the port as a way of paying down some of that debt.

Image copyrightAFP Image captionRavi Karunanayake was previously finance minister but took office as foreign minister this week. He says Sri Lanka needs to "sell ourselves"

The terms of the deal are still being debated in Sri Lanka's parliament, but the share it gives could be as high as 80%.

"It is unaffordable for an activity that doesn't bring any economic returns," says Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake. "So that's compelling us to look at options."

The vision for Hambantota was that it would bring more ships to Sri Lanka, and ease pressure on the Colombo port, one of Asia's most important container terminals.

Sri Lanka is located on the sea route that sees oil shipments travel from the Middle East, making energy security a key reason China was keen to invest.

Image captionHambantota has struggled to make money

But it also fits neatly into China's controversial One Belt, One Road initiative, building road, rail and sea links to boost trade with countries around the world.

Local fury

Hambantota has struggled to make money, partly because it is fairy isolated. With no industrial hub nearby, there are no natural customers on its doorstep.

But now that China looks set to take control of the port, that is a problem it wants to fix and is talking to the government about plans to create a large economic zone - buying 15,000 acres of land to build factories and offices.

But many who live in the area don't want to give up their homes and farms.

At a small village near the harbour, locals are furious about the plan. Many of them participated in a large protest against the investment hub in January.

Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse people. Some protesters were jailed for weeks, which has only deepened the anger.

Image copyrightAFP Image captionHundreds of activists and Buddhist monks protested against the Chinese investment in Hambantota earlier this year

"We wanted to show the world that we oppose this project," says KP Indrani, who was injured during the protest. "We are not against development, but what they are doing is not going to be beneficial for us."

• Sri Lanka profile
• S Lanka clashes over Chinese investment

But these deals look like Sri Lanka's best way of paying down some of the $8bn it owes China.

Squandered money

The island's total debt stands at $64bn. About 95% of all government revenues go towards debt repayment.

And when some of that money borrowed has been seemingly squandered on infrastructure that shows no sign of turning a profit, that is even more damaging.

At the international airport, barely 30km from Hambantota, just five flights take off every week serving just a few hundred passengers.

Image captionMattala Rajapaksa Airport is not the busiest

Then there is a state-of-the-art conference centre that is barely used, and a cricket stadium now only occasionally rented out for weddings.

Job creation

But not all of China's developments in Sri Lanka have proved a flop.

Roads and highways are being laid all over the country, and some have really shortened travel time between towns and cities. This has helped boost tourism, the country's biggest source of foreign income.

"In the near term, there will be some local jobs for Sri Lankans," says Angela Mancini, who advises businesses and governments on investments.

"But in the longer term, I think the bigger upside potentially for Sri Lanka is to really get tapped into this global trade route system that the Chinese are backing."

 

Media captionWhy are so many Sri Lankans learning Chinese?

Many of the China-funded projects were planned and constructed during the tenure of previous President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and are located in his electoral constituency.

Too much to turn down

A new government came to power in 2015, pledging to reduce Sri Lanka's reliance on China, but financial pressures have forced it to tow the same line.

It initially suspended a major project that China had invested in - a brand new city being built off the coast of Colombo on reclaimed land.

But the $1.4bn it was bringing in proved too hard to turn away, and development resumed last year.

Image copyrightCHEC Image captionThe developers say the new city will become a financial hub for South Asia

So at Colombo's historic Galle Face seaside promenade, from where once you could only see waves and the horizon, now there's a fresh piece of land jutting out into the Indian Ocean.

The hope is to transform it into a modern city by 2040, with swanky corporate buildings, shiny apartment blocks, hotels, resorts, beaches, malls and even a marina. The first part of it will be available for use in two years.

China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), which is building the city, will get about two-thirds of the marketable land on lease for 99 years in return for its investment.

"What this project will bring to Sri Lanka is foreign direct investments estimated at $15bn," says Thulci Aluwihare of CHEC Port City Colombo.

"Last year foreign direct investment in the country was a mere $300m. So this would be a catalyst for Sri Lanka."

'Protect, not sell'

Once again, the government has faced opposition. Groups of fishermen and locals have held protests and demonstrations.

Some are worried about the environmental impact of the project. They are not convinced by the studies done by government agencies, who have given it the all clear.

Image captionFisherman Aruna Roshantha says Sri Lankans don't like their land being given away

But many are also concerned about the growing Chinese influence in the country.

"We don't like our land being given away to China," says fisherman Aruna Roshantha. "Not just China, if any country comes and takes land from Sri Lanka, we don't like it. The government should protect our land, not sell it."

At the moment though, Sri Lanka's government doesn't have much room to negotiate.

And Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake says they need to welcome everyone with open arms.

"We love the Indians to come in, we love the Chinese to come in, we love the Japanese to come in. Koreans or European, we have no problem at all.

"We need to basically sell ourselves and sell on a consistent coherent basis, and make that economic diplomacy a selling tool for Sri Lanka."

 

 

 

in short , china gives the loan and then using the same loan borrower starts infrasturcture projects given to the same chinese firms ..

and most of these projects are of no use to anyone except chinese ..

 

 

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40044113

[zen]

This model has been adopted for a time by various countries

 

* Create dreams of development and success

* Get corrupt polutians on board

* Provide loans at high interests

* Have your companies to work on those projects (funneling the loan money back)

* The developing nations ends uo with huge loans to repay

* If the projects are not ecomonically viable, the developing nation is in the soup

* Look for new targets

Edited July 29, 2017 by zen

[velu]

follow up post 

 

 

Quote

 

Sri Lanka Sells China Majority Stake in Strategic Indian Ocean Port

NEW DELHI — 

Sri Lanka has signed a $ 1.1 billion deal with a Chinese company to sell a majority stake in a controversial deep port in a bid to slash debt and says it has addressed concerns that China could use the port for military purposes.

The deal was signed after months of renegotiation following strident opposition to the project. While critics at home warned that handing majority control to the Chinese threatens national security, neighboring India fretted about China gaining access to a strategic port in its immediate neighborhood in the Indian Ocean.

Built with a massive loan by China in 2010, the Hambantota port is seen as key to Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road initiative that aims to connect roads and ports across Asia and Europe and to its efforts to shore up its presence in the Indian Ocean. 

The Sri Lankan government says that under the terms of the deal, Sri Lanka’s navy will handle the security of Hambantota port and no foreign navy will be allowed to use it as a base.

“We are giving the country a better deal without any implications on security," Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told reporters. 

The Chinese stake in the project has also been scaled back from 80 per cent to 70 per cent to blunt domestic opposition that Beijing should not get control of national assets. 

Sri Lanka will have a majority stake in the firm dealing with security, ensuring that it controls what ships can dock there, while China will run the company in charge of business.

 

https://www.voanews.com/a/sri-lanka-china-majority-state-indian-ocean-port/3964042.html

 

 

[Tibarn]

This will happen to all the countries in China's new silk road initiative... 

 

 

[chewy]

Already happening in Pakistan on larger scale, where Pak's profitable assists like Airport and Tolls have been leased to China, easy milking.

both countries have been using failed logic of investing in infrastructure when foreign direct investment is falling or exports shrinking. Not to mention a terrorists army ruling in Pakistan will always deter investors

 

spending on Infrastructure is surest way to boost GDP numbers but legacy of this spending depends on country's ability to use it to create jobs, growth, improve standards of living. 

[G_B_]

The problem is countries like Sri Lanka and Pakistan are heavily dependent on remittances.

 

Sri lanka in particular is heavily dependent on tourism and remittances for jobs and economic viability. Together these two are are around 25% of GDP. Remittances growth is slowing down and tourism while growing rapidly post the end of the civil war is also slowing down.

Exports in key sectors like garments tea etc have been falling for a long period now. FDI is also limited. 

 

This is going to end in tragedy is they end up simply building factories and ports for a demand that does not exist. What they need to do as a result of a relatively educated population is devalue their currency and aim to be competitive 

 

 

[G_B_]

and sorry for digressing in this thread but Pakistan is facing another round of IMF infused sums (or going to the chinese) and revaluing the rupee.

 

Remittances are falling. Exports are drying up. Current account deficit has touched 4% of GDP. 

 

https://www.dawn.com/news/1346347

 

In such a scenario when you have to devalue your currency you are taking large amount of loans for projects which cannot be financed? 

 

At this point i will say India is in the same boat when it comes to exports as SL and Pakistan. Falling remittances and less than impressive exports. The differences in all of this is unlike Pakistan and Sri Lanka India due to the efforts of the Modi government is getting $60 billion in FDI to keep the rupee stable. A combination of $65 billion in remittances and $60 billion in FDI is keeping our trade imbalance in check.  

 

But fundamentally India also needs to boost exports. Otherwise there will be a repeat of the 2013 crisis when India was clubbed in the fragile 5. Make in India I will wait for another couple of years but so far the gains have been less than impressive.

 

 

[sandeep]

10 hours ago, G_B_ said:

Make in India I will wait for another couple of years but so far the gains have been less than impressive.

Modi has shown a worrying penchant for fixating on "big" projects, and not enough attention to details.  Its great to talk about Swacch Bhaarat.  But after the nice phot op and social media BS with a Jhaadu, where is the execution on the government side of things?  Where is the trash pick up and disposal supply chain? The garbage processing and recycling facilities?  Tweeting and trading pictures with Bollywood stars is not enough to keep India clean.   

 

This "Make in India" stuff is along the same lines - big noise and PR, big expos and conferences aside, where are the new industries being set up?  Where's the infrastructure upgrade and SEZs?   

 

Modi loves making a splash.  But just like its the quiet hard work of the John Wrights and Gary Kirstens that leads to truly good results, and everyone knows that Mr. Tracer Bullet is all hype.  Same applies to Modi too.  

 

Cue the congress bashing from the Bhakts now.   I'm sorry.  Other parties' ineptitude and low level of performance can only be used if you are in the opposition.  Its time to deliver for the BJP.   

 

Wtf has Modi done with Ganga river so far anyway?   

[Tibarn]

4 hours ago, sandeep said:

Modi has shown a worrying penchant for fixating on "big" projects, and not enough attention to details.  Its great to talk about Swacch Bhaarat.  But after the nice phot op and social media BS with a Jhaadu, where is the execution on the government side of things?  Where is the trash pick up and disposal supply chain? The garbage processing and recycling facilities?  Tweeting and trading pictures with Bollywood stars is not enough to keep India clean.   

One has to look on government websites to follow what is being done. The government isn't going to have weekly press briefings about every issue.  

For example for Swachh Bharat one has to go to some of the websites and see the data for themselves:

http://sbm.gov.in/sbmreport/home.aspx

http://wateraidindia.in/blog/swachh-bharat-2019-progress-projections-challenges-latrine-use/

http://www.swachhbharaturban.in/sbm/home/#/SBM

http://swachh-survekshan.in/

Those websites contain reports, charts, graphs, and data visualizations relating to different aspects of Swacch Bharat. 

If one reads those websites, one can get a sense of the progress. ie:

Date	Individual Household Latrines constructed (crores)	Coverage (per cent)
Sep-14*	0.00	42.12
Oct-14	0.05	42.40
Nov-14	0.10	42.67
Dec-14	0.16	43.00
Jan-15	0.23	43.39
Feb-15	0.31	43.83
Mar-15	0.49	44.82
Apr-15	0.53	45.04
May-15	0.58	45.32
Jun-15	0.65	45.70
Jul-15	0.73	46.14
Aug-15	0.81	46.58
Sep-15	0.92	47.19
Oct-15	1.03	47.79
Nov-15	1.15	48.45
Dec-15	1.26	49.06
Jan-16	1.38	49.72
Feb-16	1.52	50.49
Mar-16	1.76	51.82
Apr-16	1.78	51.93
May-16	1.85	52.31
Jun-16	1.99	53.08
Jul-16	2.13	53.85
Aug-16	2.16	54.02
Sep-16**	2.43	55.48

 

 

 

One can see that Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh are the first states in the nation which are open defecation free in all their urban areas. 

 

One can also see overall state coverage(like below) and other data. One just has to go through those websites. 

One can see which states are laggards and which are taking the lead. 

 

If one goes to the 4th link, one can see the full length reports. The 2017 report is right here (warning it's a 72 page PDF):

http://swachh-survekshan.in/SS_2017_Report.pdf

 

[cowboysfan]

China is doing to its neighbors and other countries what Japan did in China and other asian countries in the early 20th century.nobody could stop Japan then till the 2nd world war and i fear nobody will stop China now either.

Edited August 2, 2017 by cowboysfan

[G_B_]

On 7/30/2017 at 9:18 PM, sandeep said:

Modi has shown a worrying penchant for fixating on "big" projects, and not enough attention to details.  Its great to talk about Swacch Bhaarat.  But after the nice phot op and social media BS with a Jhaadu, where is the execution on the government side of things?  Where is the trash pick up and disposal supply chain? The garbage processing and recycling facilities?  Tweeting and trading pictures with Bollywood stars is not enough to keep India clean.   

 

This "Make in India" stuff is along the same lines - big noise and PR, big expos and conferences aside, where are the new industries being set up?  Where's the infrastructure upgrade and SEZs?   

 

Modi loves making a splash.  But just like its the quiet hard work of the John Wrights and Gary Kirstens that leads to truly good results, and everyone knows that Mr. Tracer Bullet is all hype.  Same applies to Modi too.  

 

Cue the congress bashing from the Bhakts now.   I'm sorry.  Other parties' ineptitude and low level of performance can only be used if you are in the opposition.  Its time to deliver for the BJP.   

 

Wtf has Modi done with Ganga river so far anyway?   

 

I tend to agree. Look there is no harm in promoting swatch bharat. Its more of a mental thing. Dont litter basically and aim to put things in bins. Try to recycle. etc etc. 

 

Swach bharat is probably a combination of Changing public mentality + providing the sustainable infra.

 

The former probably does not need much money and planning. 

[sandeep]

1 hour ago, G_B_ said:

 

I tend to agree. Look there is no harm in promoting swatch bharat. Its more of a mental thing. Dont litter basically and aim to put things in bins. Try to recycle. etc etc. 

 

Swach bharat is probably a combination of Changing public mentality + providing the sustainable infra.

 

The former probably does not need much money and planning. 

Sure, there's no harm in promoting cleanliness.  But how about focus on efficiency, execution and implementation of policies and systems that can actually make it happen?   Cities don't get cleaner with just citizens being more diligent - there needs to be a proper system in place to collect and dispose trash.  Its a travesty that India, with an enormous supply of cheap and willing low-end labor, can't even get trash collection sorted.  And its not all just the fault of the "ignorant mob".   Its a massive failure of government execution.  And its the epitome of low hanging fruit for a motivated and able "Administrator".   I.e. what Modi claims to be.  But he's too busy ribbon cutting "Make in India" conferences, building white elephant "Cities" in Ahmedabad, to actually get the job done.   

 

I'm not saying he's as useless as his Kaangressi predecessors, but I'm losing patience with him.  What has he really achieved in his term so far? Apart from inheriting a very fortuitous down-turn in Oil prices - something that always makes the Indian Economic numbers appear far rosier than they are.   

 

@Tibarn I had started replying to your post earlier, but got pulled into something else.   Your statistics are about govt subsidies doled out to people to build bathrooms - great.   But where is similar data on weekly trash collection?  Or trash incinerators or recycling centers built in Indian cities with population of 1 million or more?   And this is assuming that these numbers that you posted and linked to, are actually legit.  Don't forget, Lalu prasad Yadav also had a bunch of data and statistics of how Bihar state government was providing 'fodder' to farmers at a subsidised rate.  Turns out those farmers and cows/buffaloes didn't exist, while Laloo raked in millions of dollars.   Not saying Modi or his coterie is doing that with the "Latrines".  But pointing to newly elected government doling out money to voters is not really true progress in my opinion.   Government's responsibilities are much more than that.   

 

Show me a list of trash collection centers built since Modi become PM.   Forget the whole country - what about Modi's own constituency - and the much ballyhooed "Namaami Gange" Project.   What's happening with that? Every Indian would support even a multi-billion dollar project to get the Ganga cleaned - so its not a question of money.  Its a question of does he have the will to get it done, and apart from all the propaganda about Modi's adminstrative wizardry, can he actually get a complex project done?  There are no excuses anymore - he's PM of India.  The buck does stop with him.  

[sandeep]

@G_B_ @Tibarn

 

Out of curiosity, I clicked on the links supplied by Tibarn and went to the site.  

 

http://www.swachhbharaturban.in/sbm/home/#/SBM

 

If you go to "States/Cities"--City level information" and select "Solid waste treatment and disposal" - any prizes for guessing what "reports" are listed?   You get re-directed to a page that says Generic Error.   

 

Hate to say I told you so.  But I told you so.    

 

Just creating a website and a bunch of reports with numbers and graphs might look impressive.  But the real data is always when you drill down.  

 

Now maybe, Modi and his magical administrative wizards are hard at work at this, and results are yet to show.  But so far, the prima facie evidence on Swacch Bhaarat looks like he's chewwtiyaa banaoing the Bhakts and Indian Citizens alike.  

 

But who cares?? Forget all this boring stuff about garbage collection.  Let's read a few more articles about how India's GDP growth rate is now better than China's.  We are going to be a supaaah powaaah biyaatches.     

 

Edited August 3, 2017 by sandeep

[jusarrived]

On 29/07/2017 at 6:09 PM, velu said:

 

 

 

in short , china gives the loan and then using the same loan borrower starts infrasturcture projects given to the same chinese firms ..

and most of these projects are of no use to anyone except chinese ..

 

 

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40044113

I visited SL few years back , if anything for a SC country their infra was top notch . Even remote areas had good roads .

[Tibarn]

@sandeep

 

I agree that more thorough data is required, encompassing all aspects of Swacch Bharat. It looks like most of the data on central websites relates to latrine creation and ODF.  One of the problems with data collection of, for example solid waste disposal or waste disposal plants created, is that this is dependent on municipalities actually uploading such information, and then that information being uploaded to state Swacch Bharat and central Swacch Bharat websites. It’s also important that ending ODF should be the central focus of the mission, in my opinion. If Swacch Bharat eliminates ODF by the target date, but fails to fully complete other aspects, it will be a major success. However, that’s just my opinion…   

 

On pages 4-6 on the 2017 Swacch Survekshan report it explains the methodology for verifying the progress of the mission. There isn’t really room for a fodder scam like situation here as the data comes from individual municipalities, independent assessors, and private citizens in a 45:25:30 ratio, not the state or central government. The center just accumulates and presents the data. There is a chance that the municipal government is lying about their latrine creation, but, since 55% of the scoring is based off of independent observers/citizens, the municipalities can’t fudge the numbers totally.  

http://swachh-survekshan.in/SS_2017_Report.pdf

 

These are the links that the ministry has on the Namami Gange project.

They have the GRBMP reports from the IITs here:

http://nmcg.nic.in/Grbmpreports.aspx

The approved projects, state-wise, and their status are here:

http://nmcgpms.nic.in/StatewiseDetails.aspx

The quarterly progress reports of projects are here: 

http://nmcg.nic.in/projectsearch.aspx

 

Regarding stuff like solid waste disposal, etc, the Swacch Survekshan dashboard has more info, although still not as specific as you wanted: 

http://dashboard.swachh-survekshan.com/?level=1&analysis=4&metric=All Cities

 

 

 

[sandeep]

6 minutes ago, Tibarn said:

If Swacch Bharat eliminates ODF by the target date, but fails to fully complete other aspects, it will be a major success. However, that’s just my opinion…   

That's a major re-write of the objective for Swacchh Bhaarat.  If a Kaangresi did it, you would surely be calling it out as "shifting goalposts".   

 

Bottomline - Modi flagged off a major cleanliness initiative and was lauded for doing so - but his administration is apparently failing in a major aspect of the requisite tasks that would accomplish that goal.   

 

If all this "data" and website can't answer such a simple question - how many trash processing centers were built - then I'm sorry, but this entire website looks like an excercise in PR management.  

[sandeep]

12 minutes ago, Tibarn said:

The center just accumulates and presents the data. There is a chance that the municipal government is lying about their latrine creation, but, since 55% of the scoring is based off of independent observers/citizens, the municipalities can’t fudge the numbers totally

Are you really that naive, that you believe that the data 'accumulation' can't be corrupted by vested interests?  i.e. people who are skimming the subsidies?   

[surajmal]

11 minutes ago, sandeep said:

That's a major re-write of the objective for Swacchh Bhaarat.  If a Kaangresi did it, you would surely be calling it out as "shifting goalposts".   

 

Bottomline - Modi flagged off a major cleanliness initiative and was lauded for doing so - but his administration is apparently failing in a major aspect of the requisite tasks that would accomplish that goal.   

 

If all this "data" and website can't answer such a simple question - how many trash processing centers were built - then I'm sorry, but this entire website looks like an excercise in PR management.  

How much money do you think it will take to make (and keep) India swachch?

[Tibarn]

9 hours ago, sandeep said:

That's a major re-write of the objective for Swacchh Bhaarat.  

According to...? 

 

Here are the stated objectives of Swacch Bharat:

http://www.swachhbharaturban.in:8080/sbm/content/writereaddata/SBM_Guideline.pdf

 

Quote

2.1 Mission Objectives

2.1.1 Elimination of open defecation

2.1.2 Eradication of Manual Scavenging

2.1.3 Modern and Scientific Municipal Solid Waste Management

2.1.4 To effect behavioral change regarding healthy sanitation practices

2.1.5 Generate awareness about sanitation and its linkage with public health

2.1.6 Capacity Augmentation for ULBs to create an enabling environment for private sector participation in Capex (capital expenditure) and Opex (operation and maintenance)

4 out of the 6 of the objectives would be almost completely be met simply by getting 100% toilet coverage and 100% usage. 

 

Here is the plan flow chart for Swachh Bharat

If you notice the common thread between the objectives and the plan, you would see how much of the entire program is centered on creating toilets and getting people to use them.

 

One can even look at the twitter page for Swachh Bharat and see what is constantly promoted: increasing toilets, reducing ODF, increasing toilet usage, providing toilets for women, etc. 

https://twitter.com/swachhbharat?lang=en

 

 

If one were aware of public health issues in India, one would know how how many problems are linked directly to ODF: diseases, infections,  clean water access, malnutrition, childhood mortality, stunted growth, community health, decreased vaccine absorption, and even IQ depression. Achieving an ODF free India by 2019 would be transformative for rural India. Solid waste disposals is much more minor of an issue in public health terms. 

 

If you think accepting a score of 80 runs as a successful innings from a batsman whose goal is to score a ton is shifting goalposts, I don't know what to say... especially when the other batsman averages 10, scores 15 on a good day,  and runs out a minimum of two partners an innings.    

 

Quote

If a Kaangresi did it, you would surely be calling it out as "shifting goalposts".

If you say so...

 

9 hours ago, sandeep said:

Bottomline - Modi flagged off a major cleanliness initiative and was lauded for doing so - but his administration is apparently failing in a major aspect of the requisite tasks that would accomplish that goal.   

Maybe, maybe not. I wouldn't say that aspect is major and I wouldn't say it is failing until the soft target date, Oct 2019, actually approaches.

9 hours ago, sandeep said:

If all this "data" and website can't answer such a simple question - how many trash processing centers were built - then I'm sorry, but this entire website looks like an excercise in PR management.  

A missing page on a website =/= that a project isn't going on successfully, IMO. 

 

 

9 hours ago, sandeep said:

Are you really that naive, that you believe that the data 'accumulation' can't be corrupted by vested interests?  i.e. people who are skimming the subsidies?   

I said they they couldn't...  I can also reverse it back at you: are you really so jaded that all the data are false until proven otherwise? You believe this despite the fact that the data is collected/produced by private citizens, independent assessors, and municipal governments? None of the data are created by the central government.  If you want to assume that private citizens in conjunction with independent assessors and municipal governments are all lying as part of a central government PR exercise, that is your call.  Until the numbers are proven wrong, I'll side with the data.  

 

Here's what the data says

 http://dashboard.swachh-survekshan.com/

http://swachh-survekshan.in/SS_2016_report.pdf

http://swachh-survekshan.in/SS_2017_Report.pdf
http://swachhbharaturban.gov.in/dashboard/DashBoardData.aspx

http://swachhbharaturban.gov.in/writereaddata/Statewise_status_of_implementation.pdf

http://dashboard.swachh-survekshan.com/?analysis=4

 

The target of  door-to-door waste collection is at 68.43% 

The target of waste processed is at 23.3%

IHHL coverage is at 66.11%

IHHL should be around 80%

ODF free villages are at 36.34% (and only recently has BJP run state governments come into power in both UP and Bihar, the two states with less than 10% ODF free villages)

There are now 5 ODF free states: Haryana, Kerala, Uttarakhand, HP, and Sikkim

2 further states are ODF free in Urban areas: Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh

etc, etc.

 

These numbers are all with over 2 years left on the target date set at launch of the program in 2014. The BJP has slowly formed governments in more and more states, so one would expect the numbers to improve at a more rapid pace.  

 

If you think that they aren't going fast enough, then I could see that as a fair criticism, but  If you think that SBM is a PR exercise and all the numbers are cooked, then there isn't much to discuss.   

Edited August 4, 2017 by Tibarn

[G_B_]

@sandeep

 

what you are suggesting needs money. Lots of it. While Modi did get low oil prices as a bonus he also got a central government with a budget deficit of 4% of GDP and a banking system riddled with NPAs. Honestly the government just does not have enough funds to pump into the states for these sort of endavours. Keep in mind India was a fragile 5 economy just before Modi took over. He inherited a mess from the previous government.

 

You cant blame him for being responsible by trying to get the deficit in check. Its should be down to 3.2% next year as a result of efficiency measures. 

These are more fundamental things he has had to tackle to keep the country afloat. Apart from the oil prices he inherited a very poor position. Considering multiple reforms have been passed to ensure that the NPA's dont accumulate at this rate again and the GST being a landmark bill allowing government to get more taxes (which can be pumped into sanitary measures) you need to give him time.

 

By all accounts IMO come 2019 India should be growing at a stable 8% come 2019. You also mention low oil prices. keep in mind oil prices at the pump are a function of barrel of oil in USD and the USD to INR exchange rate. The rupee when Modi has taken over was around 61 and is currently at 64 over 3 years. So there have been a stability which has allowed the government to take reap the benefits of the low oil price. Cause is oil was $50 and USD INR was Rs75 all the benefits of the drop would be lost.