Nitish Kumar sets new condition: Have toilet, contest elections

New Delhi: In a statement that could create a political controversy, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said that if a person doesn't have a toilet in his home, he will not be allowed to contest panchayat or urban body elections in Bihar."Those not having a toilet in their homes will not be allowed to contest panchayat or urban local body elections in Bihar," he said in his blog.The government would bring an amendment in the Panchayati Raj Act to enforce the code, he said."With this, I sincerely hope there will be greater urgency among people and government agencies to work on this issue. You know this concern has been at the core of my heart and soon after I assumed charge as Chief Minister, I have been working on creating awareness about access to toilets," Kumar said in his blog."I have always been inspired by our great leader Ram Manohar Lohia. Way back in 1950, Shri Lohia had advocated cleanliness of toilets and rivers," he said.Kumar recounted that Lohia, who was a staunch critic of Jawaharlal Nehru, had once said, "I would stop my opposition to Nehru if he built toilets for all the women in the country."Talking about his initiative, he said the state government had launched the unique "Lohia Swachhata Yojana" in 2006 with an aim to ensure toilets for all."I am proud to note that, other than Maharashtra, Bihar was the only state to have launched a "unique" scheme to address the problem of open defecation," he added.The Lohia Swachhata Yojana was designed to achieve the objective of providing sustainable toilets to all households by 2015."While the BPL families were covered under the Central scheme of Total Sanitation Campaign, we also made provisions for incentives to APL families," Kumar said giving details of the scheme."The incentives/subsidies was a tool to encourage people to think on the significance of toilets. I was aghast to note that many people had toilets and yet they did not use it – and my endeavour was to create a compelling attentiveness among people on the need for the same," he said."I have announced this year that panchayats that achieve the 100 per cent target of constructing toilets will be given the Nirmal Gram Panchayat prize of Rs 5 lakh each. The Nirmal Prakhand award will carry Rs 25 lakh in prize for blocks for conducting a cleanliness drive."The Bihar Chief Minister said his effort was aimed at addressing a fundamental woe of human civilization, a cause for which Mahatma Gandhi spent considerable efforts."My head sinks with shame when I am told that over 600 million people in India or 53 per cent of Indian households today have to suffer the humiliation of defecating in the open," he said.It is sad Kumar said, as WHO has noted, that "every day, nearly two billion tonne of human faeces, with a dizzying number of potential viruses, bacteria and worm eggs, are lying around our planet ready to be trodden on, touched or ingested in water and food".The consequences are not difficult to calculate: diarrhoea, caused by that contaminated food, water and environment, is still the second deadliest killer of children in the world, killing 1,600 children every day, he said."The central government had aimed to construct 1.11 crore toilets in the state, our records show that 2.19 crore families do not have a toilet in their home," he said.(With PTI inputs)