Install toilet at home to contest local body polls in Gujarat

If one wants to contest civic body elections in Gujarat he or she has to have a toilet installed at his or her residence. This condition has been mandated by the Gujarat government which passed a legislation in this regard in the state assembly on Monday.

"Curbing open defecation is vital from the point of view of creating hygienic conditions and cleanliness and preventing water contamination. Particularly, the female members find themselves in a shameful condition for compulsory resorting to such open defecation," the state government stated in the Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (amendment) Bill, 2014 that was passed by majority vote by the state legislators.

The Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (amendment) Bill, 2014, makes it compulsory for a person to have a toilet at his residence if he wants to contest local bodies elections. The Bill will now go to the Governor for final approval after which the Bill will become an Act and government will issue appropriate notification.

The amendment also mandates sitting members of the local self government bodies to declare within six months of the notification of the Act that they have a toilet facility in their houses. If they fail to do so they will be disqualified as member of the civic body.

To enforce this legislation the state government has amended the relevant provisions of the Gujarat Provisional Municipal Corporations Act, 1949, the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963 and Gujarat Panchayats act 1993. "The person who does not have the toilet facilities at the place of his ordinary residence cannot become a councillor or a member of the municipal corporation, municipality or the panchayat as the case may be," the state government stated in the objects and reasons of the Bill.

The new legislation will be applicable to local-self government bodies like municipal corporations, municipalities, taluka panchayats, district panchayats and gram panchayats.

Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi who hails from the state had also emphasized the need of a toilet at place of residence in his Independence Day speech and later launched the "Swach Bharat Abhiyan" (Clean India Campaign) last month.

According to the state government the legislation was necessary because administrative actions alone were not enough to curb the menace of open defecation. "The central and state governments and the local self governments have taken administrative measures to make the people aware about the need of the toilet in the habitation itself and have launched a drive to provide toilet in facility to families by giving incentives in the form of financial assistance for construction of the toilet at the place of their habitation. However, it is felt that such administrative measures alone are not enough and some legislative measures are required and seem inevitable to yield the desired results in a time bound manner," stated the objects and reasons of the Bill.

Besides this the government also made amendments in Gujarat Panchayat Act where it increased criteria for a village population from present 15,000 to 25,000.