Madhya Pradesh family turns toilet into a kitchen

Bhopal: A family in a Madhya Pradesh village has converted the toilet built in their house under the Swachchh Bharat Mission into a kitchen, an official probe has found.

A team of officials sent to Bamourkhaud panchayat under Sheopur district to evaluate the implementation of the scheme in the locality on Friday entered the house of one Lakhan Prajapati in the village of Kundai after spotting smoke billowing from his toilet.

“We have noticed that the toilet basin was covered with a cardboard on which the gas stove was kept. The female members were caught making ‘chapatis’ in the toilet-turned-kitchen when we entered the house,” a member of the inspection team told this newspaper on the phone.

The inspection team was led by local janpad chief executive officer Mahendra Jain. The villager has received a subsidy of Rs 12,000 to build the toilet under Swachchh Bharat Mission scheme, the officer said.

The female members of the family told the inspection team that they were forced to turn the toilet into a temporary kitchen as the other rooms of the house were leaking due to incessant rains for the past several days.

“But, we did not find a trace of leakage in other rooms in the house. Our investigation has found that the family members were yet to shed their habit of defecating in the open and hence turned the toilet into kitchen,” the officer said.

The family has been warned of severe action by the local administration if they failed to give up their old habit, he added.