Gandhinagar: The Gujarat government is applauded for constructing 43 lakh toilets in villages on public roads. However, the ground reality shows that the government has failed to teach about hygiene and toilets to the people in the villages. The Gujarat government is announcing publicly by hitting the board that Narendra Modi is at the center, and Gujarat is at the height of development. In total, 43 lakh toilets were constructed in rural areas of the state under the Swachh Bharat Mission.
A 2012 Baseline Survey found that 36,90,505 households had toilets, whereas 33,04,217 did not. Now, the government asserts that 43 lakh toilets are constructed in Gujarat villages after ten years of this survey. Why are public restrooms still in use in every village of Gujarat if one million families have increased there over 10 years and if the government has constructed 43 lakh toilets? Public defecation has not been encouraged by the state, which has instead claimed to have only secured the Prime Minister’s approval.
According to a government contractor, constructing a toilet typically costs Rs30,000. The government provides Rs12000. The next step is using the restroom in a non-residential area, in the open, or in public. People traveling to Gujarat’s villages still urinate on public streets and places. Many people lament that they can’t seem to find a bathroom. On the other hand, some toilets complain about the water as it is unfit for use.
But the reason for these public complaints is the government’s inattention to operations. The villages are still not defecate-free. The government is more interested in campaigning by erecting hoardings on the main road of Gandhinagar instead of going to the villages to persuade the people or change the situation.
Gujarat’s biggest scam is 90% incompetence
Sarv Samaj Sena Gujarat president and former sarpanch Mahipat Singh Chauhan said that the biggest scam in Gujarat is the toilet scam. If this toilet scheme gets investigated, 90% of irregularities exist there. The condition of public toilets in the villages is similar.
Used as a store room
Kheda District Youth Congress President Pradhyuman Singh Thakore said the government’s public defecation-free campaign has failed. Nothing happens in the 12 thousand rupees that the government gives. Five thousand rupees for digging a pit, five thousand rupees for bricks, iron, sand, gravel, materials, and labor, and at least 30 thousand rupees are spent to build a toilet. In the villages, toilets constructed under the government scheme are mostly filled with wood and used as store rooms. Thus, the mission of the government has failed in the villages.
Showpiece toilets
You will find toilets with only locked cabins if you visit the locals in and around the area. The first toilet had wood, the second had animal-feed, and the third had luggage. If the beneficiary’s toilet well has not been dug in many places, then why use it? People frequently use government-funded restrooms as cabins in numerous locations. Firewood used tools, and farm equipment is stored in toilets.
