Mumbai:
Taking serious note of people defecating in open, which is the root cause of major diseases in rural areas, the state government has decided to come down heavily on the elected representatives for not implementing the measures at their homes.
The elected representatives in the rural area may now lose their seat if they do not build a toilet in their homes.
State Cabinet, on Tuesday, made it compulsory for the representatives from gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and zilla parishads - the local bodies from village to district levels - to have toilets in their homes by March 31, 2011.
The candidates contesting elections for these bodies will have to fulfill the condition at the time of filing nomination. Of the total 2.25 lakh such representatives, more than 60,000 do not have toilets in their homes. If they continue to defecate in open, their candidature will automatically be cancelled on April 1, 2011.
According to the rural development department, nearly 30% of the families with toilets in their homes opt to defecate in open. "One gram of human excreta contains 1 lakh bacteria and 1 crore viruses that spread diseases. We are hammering on anti-open defecation drive and want public representatives to play a key role. The decision taken today, will help them set an example before the rest of the villages," an official from the department said.
There are nearly 600 gram panchayats in the state that are selected in the Nirmal Gram scheme of the central government. The drive is one of the conditions of the scheme. The cabinet decision comes as part of compliance of the scheme.
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