No toilet, No poll ticket!

Marking World Toilet Day (WTD), the Bihar government for the first time has made ‘having an in-house toilet’ as one of the prerequisites for contesting local body and Panchayat polls.

The Panchayat Act of Bihar is soon going to be amended to include this particular clause in the conditions for suitability for a candidate to contest polls. The basic purpose is to raise awareness among the masses about the benefits of having toilets in homes. The Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar announced the allocation of funds for the construction of toilets and maintaining cleanliness in different wards and village Panchayats. The Chief Minister has also urged all governmental institutions to construct toilets at their official premises. Addressing a function organized by the Bihar Rural Development and Public Health Engineering Department on the occasion of WTD, Nitish said Nirmal Gram Panchayat Award (carrying Rs500,000) will be given to those Panchayats that achieve the 100% target of constructing toilets. Nitish said his government will allocate Rs200,000 to each panchayat for construction of toilets. He said those blocks that carry out total cleanliness drives will be entitled for the Nirmal Prakhand award ( Including Rs25 lakh).