Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh may not have faced penal action for urinating in public, but a junior engineer in Uttarakhand was not lucky for doing a similar act.
The Haridwar district administration has slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 on Jagdish Prasad, a junior engineer working with Manglore municipality, for urinating against a wall at the district collectorate campus, where he had come to attend a meeting.
District magistrate Deepak Rawat issued the order against Prasad on June 30 — the day when a junior engineer was caught — for recovering Rs 5,000 from his salary as fine.
The order addressed to the executive officer of the Manglore municipality in Haridwar district said that failure to comply with the order would attract departmental action for the executive officer.
“Rules are in place to discourage littering, open defecation or urination. I caught the engineer red-handed. He was urinating despite the fact there are numerous toilets within the campus. The idea is not to defame a person but to bring discipline among people,” DM Deepak Rawat told HT on Sunday.
{{/usCountry}}“Rules are in place to discourage littering, open defecation or urination. I caught the engineer red-handed. He was urinating despite the fact there are numerous toilets within the campus. The idea is not to defame a person but to bring discipline among people,” DM Deepak Rawat told HT on Sunday.
{{/usCountry}}The engineer was not available for his comments.
As per the Centre’s direction, the state urban development department framed the rules under Swachh Bharat Mission in November last year.
However, people defecating in public were hardly penalised months after the rules were framed. Even in Haridwar, a holy town, several people can be spotted relieving themselves daily.
The action against the engineer spurred a debate on social media as some praised the district magistrate’s order, but others sought to know questioned why the Union minister, Radha Mohan Singh, who was pictured in an undated photograph relieving himself in public, was not penalised.
“Any idea how much fine was slapped on mantriji (Radha Mohan)?” asked Deepa Kaushlam. “It’s another issue whether we have enough public toilets but that does not mean offenders should be spared,” said Ramesh Pahari on Facebook.
The minister had defended himself, saying there were no urinals for long distances on the national highway NH28 in Bihar’s East Champaran district.