If you don’t have a toilet at your residence, you won’t be eligible to contest the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls to be held in February next year.
If you don’t have a toilet at your residence, you won’t be eligible to contest the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls to be held in February next year.
The state Legislative Council on Wednesday has passed a bill making it mandatory for candidates to have toilets at their residences to contest local body elections in the state. The bill has already been cleared by the Legislative Assembly.
Candidates contesting elections for the municipal council and corporations will now have to prove that they have toilet facility at their homes.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “The aim is to make cities clean and open defecation-free. We feel that at least people’s representatives should use toilets at their residences. The state government has already made it mandatory in the gram panchayat and zilla parishads polls for the candidates to have toilets at their residences. It has delivered good results in the rural areas.”
However, before the bill was passed, legislators expressed several apprehensions about the bill. They raised objections to the condition, which allowed municipal commissioner to issue a certificate confirming the candidate had a toilet at home. They also said it would be unfair to people, who do not have toilets at their homes.
Shiv Sena MLA Anil Parab said, “There are more than 25 corporators in Mumbai, who live in chawls and use public toilets. It is not possible for them to build toilets at home. If this bill is passed, they would not be able to contest municipal elections.”
Kapil Patil (Lok Bharati) said that it is a ploy to deprive political platform to the poor sections of the society. Senior Congress MLC Sharad Ranpise suggested that instead of municipal commissioner, the task of issuing certificate should be given to ward officers. The certificates should also be issued within 15 days after applying, he said.
In an attempt to allay their fears, the CM said, “Even if the candidates produce a certificate of using public toilets, they would be eligible to contest elections. In case of municipal bodies, it would be given by ward officers, whereas in nagar parishads, it can be procured from the designated officers.”
Acceding to legislators’ demands, the CM said that candidates should produce a certificate within six months of getting elected and certificates should be issued within 30 days after making the application.
