Swachh Bharat: Video of Maharashtra minister peeing roadside goes viral
What's the story
A video of Maharashtra water conservation minister Ram Shinde urinating roadside surfaced online on Sunday and has gone viral since, putting in question the relevance of PM Modi's much-hyped 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'.
Shinde reportedly said he was ill from a month-long tour of reviewing the state's Jalyukta Shivar scheme and had to pee in the open because he found no toilets on his way.
Details
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has failed: NCP
The opposition has been quick to respond. "If the minister did not find a toilet on a highway, it means the government has all along been looting people in the name of Swachh Bharat cess on fuel," Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) spokesperson Nawab Malik told PTI.
The PM shouldn't expect people to follow discipline when his own ministers were setting such examples, added Malik.
Information
100 million new toilets by 2019 under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
Launched on October 2, 2014, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is Narendra Modi's $40 billion initiative to ensure India is open-defecation free by 2019. With toilet-building and behavior-change as its major objectives, the nationwide drive aims to build over 100 million new toilets in rural India.