Need toilets, not missiles, says minister

Kishore C Deo, the Union minister for panchayati raj and tribal affairs, has said that the country needs to build basic amenities such as toilets, not just missiles that “go high and even reach other planets”.

Kishore C Deo, the Union minister for panchayati raj and tribal affairs, has said that the country needs to build basic amenities such as toilets, not just missiles that “go high and even reach other planets”.

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The cabinet minister made the remark on the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day here on Tuesday. They come in the wake of the successful launch of Agni-V, which is capable of hitting targets in China.

“We are launching missiles into the sky but, at the same time, the basic sanitation conditions in the country are pathetic,” Deo said.

Reacting to the recent Maoist abductions, Deo said the root cause of the problem lies in the suppression of tribals, who have been suffering for decades.

“Whereas it is the Maoists in fifth schedule areas of central India, it is insurgency that ailed the North-East under the sixth schedule. The tribals have... (been) ill-treated by successive governments,” Deo said.

“Such is the neglect that after six decades of Independence, we are still discovering some of our own people,” Deo said referring to the discovery of Bodiguda village in Chattisgarh.