Nitish makes toilet must for fighting local bodies polls

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said that to contest panchayat or urban local body election in the state one must have a toilet at home.
"Those not having a toilet in their homes will not be allowed to contest panchayat or urban local body elections in Bihar," he said in his blog.
The government would bring an amendment in the Panchayati Raj Act to enforce the code, he said.
"With this, I sincerely hope there will be greater urgency among people and government agencies to work on this issue. You know this concern has been at the core of my heart and soon after I assumed charge as Chief Minister, I have been working on creating awareness about access to toilets," Kumar said in his blog.

"I have always been inspired by our great leader Ram Manohar Lohia. Way back in 1950, Shri Lohia had advocated cleanliness of toilets and rivers," he said.
Kumar recounted that Lohia, who was a staunch critic of Jawaharlal Nehru, had once said "I would stop my opposition to Nehru if he built toilets for all the women in the country".

Talking about his initiative, he said the state government had launched the unique "Lohia Swachhata Yojana" in 2006 with an aim to ensure toilets for all.
"I am proud to note that, other than Maharashtra, Bihar was the only state to have launched a "unique" scheme to address the problem of open defecation," he added.

The Lohia Swachhata Yojana was designed to achieve the objective of providing sustainable toilets to all households by 2015.