Union Budget 2021: Urban Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 allocated Rs 1.42 lakh crore over 5 years

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to massive economic disruptions worldwide and while, in India, we have witnessed a resurgence, there is still a long way to go.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, during the initial portion of her Union Budget 2021 speech, announced an allocation of Rs 1,41,678 crore for Urban Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0.

The announcement was made as part of the government's plan to strengthen preventive health infrastructure. The allocated amount is an outlay for the next five years, beginning from financial year 2021-22.

The Urban Swachh Bharat Mission, whose first phase was unveiled in 2014, is aimed at making India completely open defecation free, ensuring solid waste disposal at the municipal level, and providing sanitation facilities in the remotest parts of the country.

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Sitharaman, while announcing the allocation, said "health and wellbeing" is one of the pillars on which the Union Budget 2021 rests.

The finance minister also allocated an outlay of Rs 2.87 crore for the urban Jal Jeevan Mission for the next five years. The project would cover all districts of India, and would be aimed at providing potable water in the remotest parts of the country.

A new centrally sponsored scheme called PM Atma Nirbhar Swasthya Bharat Yojana was also unveiled by Sitharaman, with the outlay of Rs 64,180 crore over six years. The project is aimed at developing primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare systems, she said.