Despite not having toilets at their homes, the residents of a village in Howrah, West Bengal, reportedly received letters congratulating them for the village becoming free of open defecation. On Saturday, the letters, signed by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee, were sent to several households in Hatgacha-II village, Uluberia-I block.
Per a report by Subrata Jana in Anandbazaar Patrika, the letter states, “The Panchayat and village development office is happy to be able to provide support to build toilets for your family, in our aim to make your village free from open defecation…”
The villagers reportedly expressed frustration at receiving such a letter as they are still having to defecate in the open or use toilets that are not connected to any sewerage pipeline or septic tank.
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The villagers also went to the panchayat office to register their protest. The Panchayat pradhan Pradip Pal has admitted that a mistake was made. The report added that Pal passed the buck on to an NGO that was given the responsibility to survey the village and to build toilets. They allegedly sent the names of those who don’t have toilets, he reportedly claimed.
Pal told Anandbazaar Patrika, “Last Thursday the block office sent around 15,000 thank you notes. They also sent instructions to distribute the letters within three days. In haste, the letters were posted without selecting the eligible families, hence, the mistake. However, the families who don’t have toilets will also get them eventually.”
Block Development Officer (BDO) Kartikchandra Roy told Anandbazaar Patrika that the matter will be looked into after speaking with the panchayat.
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Parikhit Mondal, an elder from the village told Anandbazaar Patrika, “The panchayat has been asked several times to build toilets, but because they don’t care, we have no choice but to go to open fields. On Saturday, I was shocked to receive the thank you note from the chief minister. No toilets yet we are being congratulated!”
Not just the one panchayat mentioned, the whole of Howrah district has been declared open defecation free on paper. The BDO said, “Toilets were built according to the surveys conducted in the past. The families have grown since then and population has risen. We are working according to updated surveys,” reported Anandbazaar Patrika.