Rajasthan, a State that Took ‘World Toilet Day’ Campaign Quite Seriously

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No Toilet, No Municipal Elections, Rajasthan Government Set Some Real ‘Clean’ Rules for the Elections. 

Rajasthan Government’s visionary perspective and relentless efforts in creating awareness pioneered the way for other states in sanitary regulation. Working along the lines of the Centre’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Rajasthan government declared 237 Panchayats as ODF or Free from Open Defecation this year. CM Vasundhara Raje’s dream of a healthy and hygienic Rajasthan couldn’t have been possible without the help of the natives. Today, in the event of ‘World Toilet Day’ that initially started as a mission to motivate and familiarize the masses on issues of sanitation, we are here to discuss the tales of a Rajasthan that led a mass sanitary revolution for other states to follow.

2 Unique Ordinances Ruled by the Raje Government

In 2015 Municipal elections, Rajasthan government set some mandatory rules for the natives to follow:

  1. All candidates contesting for Municipal elections must have toilets in their homes.
  2. It’s mandatory for the contestants to possess basic school education (till class 10th). Not only this, the contestants were also asked to declare their marks under oath, in the form of an affidavit.

Both these rules were brought into force by an executive order or ordinances that was issued one month ahead from the date of local elections.

Terming it a “progressive decision by the CM” Dr. Rajendra Rathode, the state Minister of Health and government spokesperson associated the new law with the state’s commitment towards ‘Swachh Hindustan, Swachh Rajasthan’ (Clean India, Clean Rajasthan) campaign.

As per Rathode, the government was inspired by the results of local Panchayat elections. Considering the fact that a significant number of winners belonged to the educated class, they decided to implement this decision at municipal level.

In an interview with NDTV reporters, Sachin Pilot (state congress Chief) was quoted saying that government took this decision ‘by stealth’, not because they actually believed this ‘ought to have been done’. He specifically questioned the CM’s decision.

Why was this criteria not announced when they made educational qualifications compulsory for panchayat members and why don’t they implement this for MPs and MLAs first?”

Challenging this rule in court, Rajasthan Congress had then claimed ‘this law would bar most candidates from contesting in the election’. Seems legit, but do we actually want an illiterate, unhygienic person to represent our society. Definitely no!

While the public had mixed reviews on this topic (some favoured this new line of thinking whereas others thought it should’ve been implemented much before), Rajasthan Congress, playing the ‘evergreen villain’, found new ways to challenge this decision. Perhaps because they regarded ‘convenience’ over ‘cleanliness’, a fact that is evident when we look at ‘dirt’ (long list of scams by Gehlot, Maderna, Dhariwal, Naagar, Anjana etc.) thriving in the Congress camp.

Perhaps Mr. Pilot is new to the concept that it’s never too late to start a beneficial thing. In any case we’re glad that the government attempted to clear the ‘dirt’ before elections. Thus, Rajasthan started a whole new crusade against open defecation and dirty politics.

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