Bhopal: In an attempt to eliminate open defecation in rural and urban areas, Madhya Pradesh panchayat and cooperatives minister Gopal Bhargava has warned that people found committing nuisance in the open will stand to lose their ration card and gun license. The Congress retorted saying that the minister should instead build toilets for poor families.
Bhargava, while attending a programme in Jabalpur, said, “The government is firm to make the state Open Defecation-Free (ODF) beginning with metros, and people found defecating in public places will not get ration cards and gun licenses.” He said that while the state government was running an awareness campaign and releasing funds to construct toilets for the rural and urban poor, a large number of people were unwilling to join the campaign.
“In order to stop open defecation in cities under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the MP government has launched a massive awareness campaign, and is now instructing district administrations to enforce it stringently,” Bhargava told Times of India.
He said the administration can scrap ration cards and gun licenses of those who are not ready to abide by the rules. However, he clarified, it was very difficult to force the public over a cause which is related to personal hygiene.
In Madhya Pradesh, more than half of the household live without toilets. The government has a target of constructing 50 lakh facilities, some with the state’s finances and some through subsidised schemes.
Priyanath Pathak, a legal practitioner, said, “Now if public defecation was made illegal and made punishable by law, where exactly do you think such people will go? Making toilets at the home is a solution obviously, but the government doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it. Also, with an income of less than Rs 22.42 (rural poverty line), I am sure they will be more concerned about what they eat then where they defecate.”
Attacking the minister, Congress MLA Shailendra Patel said, “The state needs 40 lakh or more toilets, of which 13 lakh are waiting for repairs. Unfortunately, the government has not send proposals for 49 districts.”