Loo campaign lands Chhattisgarh government in trouble

An unimaginative campaign by the local administration to make a Chhattisgarh village open defecation-free has landed the state government in trouble.

The Social Justice Commission has taken strong exception to “offending” slogans coined reportedly by the local administration in east Chhattisgarh district of Mahasamund to shame villagers who are yet to build toilets in their homes under the Swachchh Bharat Abhiyaan.

The slogan, “I do not have toilet in my house, I defecate in open”, scribbled in the walls of a village of Bemcha reportedly by the local administration, apparently to shame the owners of households without toilets, amounts to dishonouring their privacy, an official of the Social Justice Commission said and added, “Action will be taken against officials responsible for launching the offending wall writing campaign.”

Reports reaching here on Sunday said, the district administration has found itself in an awkward situation in the wake of mounting protests by the local villagers against the “humiliation” meted out to them by way of scribbling the offensive slogans in the walls of their houses. “We have taken up the matter with the National Human Rights Commission and Social Justice Commission for action against the district administration for making fun of poor people who are not in a position to build toilets in their houses. If the district administration is serious about making our village open defecation-free why does it not ensure building of toilets in our homes ” K. Sahu, a villager asked on Sunday. Interestingly, the district administration tried to wash off its hands after the issue snowballed into a major controversy.

“The decision to write slogans on the houses having no toilets was taken by the village panchayat, not by me or any administrative official,” Mahasamund district collector Umesh Agrawal said.