Gurugram: Marora’s identity as “Trump village” lasted all of three days as the administrator of Mewat district, where it’s located, got banners of the US President pulled down, describing the naming process as illegal and not sanctioned by the government.
But Tuesday’s exercise betrayed more than just a crackdown on an “illegal” event. Sulabh International had named Marora after Donald Trump on June 24, an ostentatious launch of its project to build toilets in all homes there. Just a day before that, however, the Haryana government had announced the state’s entire rural belt was open-defecation free (ODF). The contradiction was stark.
“It (the naming) was all fictitious and a fraud event by the organisers aimed at collecting money across the country and abroad,” news agency IANS quoted Mewat’s deputy commissioner (DC) Maniram Sharma as saying. “Organisers neither took any permission from local authorities, the Haryana or Union governments, nor have they applied for changing the name of the village. It was all illegal,” added Sharma, who was in the news recently for posting photos of ODF offenders on Facebook .
“Village Marora has been already declared ODF by the state government. We have ordered for removal of all signage boards and banners claiming ‘Trump Sulabh Village’ and are taking appropriate action,” the agency went on to quote Sharma, reported The Times of India.
Sulabh International founder Bindeshwar Pathak had named Marora ‘Trump Sulabh Village’ with the consent of the local panchayat and promised to construct toilets in every house, an approach road to its school, a community centre and an aganwadi. Marora has 165 families and, according to Sulabh, just 20 out of 165 houses have toilets.
Pathak said Sharma had called members of his organisation on Sunday and asked them to remove the boards and banners. “Villagers resisted and met the DC. Later, it was decided to bring down the banners after Eid so we removed them,” Pathak said, adding if the administration asked them to stop working in the area, they would do so. He also said the banners otherwise had no significance and Sulabh would complete its work if allowed to.
“What can we do if you declare a district ODF and the village has no toilet. During our survey, we found a majority of the houses in the village has no toilet so we decided to construct them. We were not aware the area has been declared ODF,” added Pathak. “We have not taken any money from people. Out organisation is doing this work on its own.”
Marora sarpanch Shaukat Ali said locals had no objection the name. “We were happy that with the new name, development will come to our village,” he said.