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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Loans and raise tied to toilets -Rakhee Roy Talukdar

Loans and raise tied to toilets -Rakhee Roy Talukdar

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published Published on Apr 17, 2015   modified Modified on Apr 17, 2015
-The Telegraph

Jaipur: Before the cash flows, check the flush.

The BJP-ruled state has linked hikes for rural staff and loans for poor farmers to having "functioning toilets" at home, with a senior official claiming the move is a first in the country.

The order was issued yesterday and covers all government employees, including non-gazetted ranks like clerks, accountants, secretarial hands and anganwadi workers - who provide basic healthcare to mothers and toddlers - ration-shop dealers and contract staff. The cut-off date for informing the government is June 30, after which there will be a physical verification.

Officials of the panchayat department, which issued the order, estimated such rural staff at 20 lakh. According to official data, of the state's 1.15 crore rural families, 84 lakh or 73 per cent, do not have toilets at home.

Poor farmers have been defined as those who have less than 45 bighas of land. The toilet rider will kick in if they seek loans of over Rs 50,000.

The order says the move is part of chief minister Vasundhara Raje's plan, announced in the recent budget, to rid Rajasthan of open defecation by 2017-18.

While the state's rural swathes have long lacked sanitation facilities, awareness campaigns and a previous order that made toilets a must for candidates contesting panchayat elections this year, have had an impact. The number of toilets has surged in the past two years: 2.88 lakh families built one in 2013-14 and eight lakh in 2014-15.

"This (latest) move is good. Villagers emulate not only sarpanches, panchayat samiti members but also office staff and government employees. If they (staff) have toilets in their homes, they would inspire other villagers to build them," said Kana Ram Patel, a lower-division clerk posted in Pali district's Jalupura village, around 350km from Jaipur.

Not everyone saw it that way. Some activists argued that the BJP government's move was meant to earn brownie points and "show the Centre" that it was pushing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet Swachh Bharat project.

"Just making things mandatory is not enough to show the central government that we have made the highest numbers of toilets. In most villages, even panchayat samitis do not have proper toilets. And, if toilets are there, there is no water. The main infrastructure has to be built first," said Virendra Shrimali, who works with panchayat members and trains them, especially women sarpanches.

Shrimali also rued the lack of a "model" in the sanitation drive. "The government till date has not made any model toilet in villages which uses less water. They have only talked of bio-degradable toilets till now."

Rajesh Yadav, commissioner of the panchayat department, disagreed. "The move is a first in the country. It will make even rural government offices build functional toilets. Even low water-use technology is available, so there's no difficulty."

The Telegraph, 17 April, 2015, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150417/jsp/nation/story_15056.jsp#.VTCBfJNr9v0


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