UP: 'Homeless' family uses toilet made under Swachh Bharat Mission as kitchen

In UP, a family was seen using a toilet constructed under Swachh Bharat Mission as their kitchen. The family belonging to Barabanki's Akanpur village said that they were helpless as they did not have a house to reside in. "We are not using this as a toilet as we do not have a house to live in. So, it is being used as a kitchen and we ourselves feel bad about it. We were not given a house under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. I have to go in the open to urinate," said one of the family members, Malti. The family has been cooking in the toilet for the past one year. 

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One of the locals, however, had a different picture to paint. Pramod, the local said that despite the availability of toilets in the village people do not use it and prefer to go outside to defecate. He also alleged that many of the toilets under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan are yet to be constructed. He also alleged that many times the village head is not willing to complete the construction work.

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"We do not even have a drainage system here and roads here are not constructed properly. We have submitted a complaint to the village secretary regarding the toilets here but nobody has taken cognizance of it so far," he said.

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However the District Magistrate (DM) of the area Dr. Adarsh Singh stated that awareness should be created about the government schemes that are in place so that such incidents don't happen. To Malti's lack of housing, he said that people who are in the eligibility list are provided with a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana if they have applied for one under the scheme. "If one is eligible, they will be definitely provided with a house but we have not received any application from their side yet," he said. 

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(With Agency Inputs)