More than 450 people will face criminal charges for wrongly certifying 155 villages as open defecation-free (ODF) under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
ADM Niaz Khan had constituted several teams of 250 officers to physically verify the claims and found that over 2,000 people were found defecating in the open. In some cases, toilets had not been constructed while in others villagers were not using them.
Khan said that the cases would be against the sarpanch, secretary and the employment assistant in each village. He said the committee responsible for quality check in these villages will also be booked. “I have informed the state government and asked the respective janpad CEOs to file FIRs,” he said.
Khan said he took the step after receiving several complaints that many villages had been wrongly given the ODF tag. The ADM said that he would send a team of officials who will stay put in these villagers for the next 10 days to ensure that the villages are actually ODF.
Kundol sarpanch Rakesh Singh said that they were being wrongly targeted. “When the certificate was given people were using the toilets, but now they are not using them. What can we do?”