Patna, Nov. 19: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today went a step further than Narendra Modi and announced that panchayat and municipal aspirants cannot contest polls if they do not have toilets at home.

Speaking at a function to observe World Toilet Day, Nitish announced that each panchayat would be given Rs 2 lakh to construct public lavatories and those who achieve cent per cent sanitation will be rewarded Rs 5 lakh. “The government will make an amendment in the panchayati raj act,” he said.

Sanitation is an issue close to the chief minister’s heart. Nitish’s political ideologue, the late Ram Manohar Lohia, also used to say that he was willing to join the Congress if the Union government ensured toilets for every woman in the country.

Last month, BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi stressed on “Pehle shauchalaya, tab devalay (build toilets before temples)”.

Nitish was quick to remind the audience today that his government had started a campaign on the same issue in 2007. “This slogan is being raised today,” he said in an oblique reference to Modi’s statement.

A survey conducted by the Bihar government revealed that 2.19 crore families — around two thirds of the state’s population — did not have toilets at home. In the 2011 Census, 17.2 per cent homes in Bihar had toilets, up 7 percentage points over 2001. Under the central scheme of Bharat Nirmal Abhiyan (for construction of toilets in below poverty line families), the government also covers above poverty line families.

In accordance with the scheme, every family is given around Rs 11,000 to construct the toilets. The government claims to have constructed around 47 lakh toilets during the Nitish regime.

Under the Millennium Development Goal, half of the 1.69 crore BPL families in Bihar have to be covered under the scheme by 2015. An official in the state government said: “It’s a tall order to complete the target.”

Those at the ground level are also not convinced.

Sudhanshu Kumar, the mukhiya of Naya Nagar panchayat in Samastipur district, said only a few houses in the village (there are around 1,200 houses) have toilets.

“Where will a beneficiary of the Indira Awas Yojana construct a toilet? The land given to him is used up for constructing the house. Even those persons who are fairly well off do not construct a toilet. Most people prefer to have an additional room instead of a toilet,” said Sudhanshu.

He suggested that construction of toilets must be made mandatory for a person to get a house under the scheme.

Others pointed to a nexus between block officers, mukhiyas and bank employees in implementing the scheme.

“They take away around 20 per cent of the money before even issuing a cheque. If the implementation of the schemes is checked properly, one will find toilets are being constructed only on paper,” said a villager in Barh.

“One only needs to take a look at Patna. Bailey Road is scattered with human excreta in the morning. So are the other important areas in the city. If this is the condition of the capital city, one can imagine the ground reality in other places, especially villages,” said Bihar Congress spokesperson Umakant Singh.