Patna: Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday visited the first panchayat declared open-defecation free in Rohtas district and asserted "men have the habit of defecating in the open, but this habit needs to be changed".

He went to Rohtas and Bhojpur districts as part of the Vikas Karyon ki Samisksha Yatra. "Just constructing toilets won't do. People need to use them. I am happy to visit this village. Amethi was the first panchayat in the district to be declared ODF (open defecation free) in August 2016," Nitish said at Susadhi village under Amethi panchayat in Rohtas district's Sanjhauli block. "If anybody is caught defecating in the open, the panchayat organises a hearing."

He said people will be rid of 90 per cent of the diseases if they get pure drinking water and stop defecating in the open. "It is for this purpose that we launched schemes to supply tap water to every household and construct toilets in each of them," Nitish said.

The chief minister was all praise for Phool Kumari, who sold her mangalsutra to get a toilet constructed, saying "it was not an ordinary act".

Inspecting various development schemes, including organic farming, vermi-compost centre and a biogas plant in Amethi, Nitish said he was supposed to visit Pipradih Rehal in Rohtas's Nauhatta block, but the plan was postponed because of bad weather as helicopter would not have been able to land there in such conditions.

He discussed the third agriculture roadmap launched last year and said the state government will spend Rs 1.54 lakh crore to increase the income of farmers. He added that only the landholders were not farmers, but also those who cultivated the land.

The chief minister cautioned the people against vested interests who wanted to compromise with prohibition and asked them to lend support to the government in countering them. He asked the people to inform the police and excise officials on numbers being put up on electricity poles with transformers.

He also sought the people's support in his campaign against child marriage and dowry and appealed to them to participate in the human chain to be formed on January 21.

The chief minister inaugurated and laid foundation stones of schemes worth over Rs 200 crore during his visit to Rohtas and Bhojpur districts, PTI adds. At a village in Jagdishpur block of Bhojpur, the chief minister flagged off 257 schemes worth Rs 222 crore, an official release said.