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Build a toilet in a month, or your ration card will be cancelled. This was the order issued by a tehsildar in a village of Raichur district in Karnataka on Thursday. The order was withdrawn on the order of the deputy commissioner on Friday. In his order, Lingasugur taluk tehsildar Shivanand Sagar wrote that ration shop owners must warn people that their ration cards would be cancelled if they do not construct toilets under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by October 2. The order said this was being done to make the area open defecation-free.
The order titled ‘About cancelling ration cards of families who fail to construct toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Rural)’ said, “Since it is intended to make the Lingasugur taluk open defecation-free by October 2, 2017, under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Rural) programme, a report will be filed about cancelling ration cards of families that do not construct toilets by October 2, 2017. In this regard, all PDS stores need to inform ration card holders about the proposed action. Even those procuring kerosene from the PDS stores must build toilets by October 2, 2017.”
Sagar told The Indian Express that he was asked by the local assistant director for MGNREGA to jointly issue the order. But Gautham Bagadi, deputy commissioner for Raichur district, withdrew the order before anybody “suffered”, he added. Amaresh, assistant director for MGNREGA in the area, said the order was issued so that they could achieve the mission target to make the village open defecation-free.
Bagadi said the order was issued without the knowledge of the district administration. He told The Indian Express that as soon as he learned about it, he asked Sagar to withdraw it. “We believe in positive measures, not coercive measures,” he said, adding that the officer had been counselled to not issue such orders in future.
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