RAS question
Consider the following statements about sewerage and sanitation in Rajasthan's urban areas: 1. Phase-I of the Rajasthan Urban Infrastructure Development Project (RUIDP), funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), included Jaipur for urban infrastructure development, including wastewater management. 2. RUIDP has funded sewerage networks in cities such as Ajmer, Bharatpur, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Kota and Pushkar. 3. Under the National Urban Sanitation Policy (NUSP), a city achieving 100% sanitation coverage receives ODF+ certification. Which of the above statements is/are correct?
Correct answer: (A) 1 and 2 only.
Statements 1 and 2 are correct: Jaipur's sewerage expansion received support from the World Bank-funded Jaipur City Development Project, and RUIDP Phase-I included wastewater management in Rajasthan's major cities. Statement 3 is incorrect because ODF+ is a Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban protocol, not a certification under the National Urban Sanitation Policy.
Explanation
Statement 1 is correct. Jaipur's sewerage expansion received significant support from the World Bank-funded Jaipur City Development Project, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and World Bank loans. Statement 2 is also correct. Phase-I of the Rajasthan Urban Infrastructure Development Project (RUIDP) was supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and covered Ajmer, Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota and Udaipur. Its sectors included water supply, wastewater management, solid waste management and related urban services. Later RUIDP support for sewerage networks in cities such as Bharatpur and Pushkar followed the same urban-infrastructure mandate. Statement 3 is incorrect because it mixes two frameworks. The National Urban Sanitation Policy (NUSP) provides a sanitation-policy framework, while the Standardised Protocols of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) include ODF, ODF+, ODF++, Water+ and Garbage Free City protocols; certification is based on independent third-party assessment.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) It excludes statement 1 even though Jaipur was part of the ADB-supported RUIDP Phase-I urban-infrastructure coverage. It also includes statement 3, which wrongly assigns ODF+ certification to NUSP instead of treating it as an SBM-U protocol.
- (C) It accepts only statement 1, even though RUIDP also undertook sewerage and wastewater-management work in Rajasthan's urban centres, making statement 2 correct.
- (D) It treats all three statements as correct, but statement 3 is incorrect: NUSP provides a policy framework, whereas ODF+ belongs to the SBM-U protocol and certification system.
Concept
This question tests the distinction among Rajasthan's urban-infrastructure schemes, sewerage projects and sanitation-certification frameworks. RAS often asks such questions because candidates may confuse their funding agencies, city coverage and certification labels, even though state projects and central missions have different roles.