4.5 lakh swachh toilets only on paper?

With its communal cries going high, BJP is now exposed of its 540 crore vanishing-toilet scam.

In Madhya Pradesh 4.5 lakh toilets seem to have vanished.

The ‘vanishing’ toilets were supposed to have been built — at least on paper.....between 2012 and October 2018. But they don’t exist.

The toilets may never be found, the administration has GPS-tagged photos of each of them.

The government aims to recover every paisa spent on them.

The photographs submitted as proof of Swachh toilet construction were actually clicked elsewhere.....perhaps at neighbours’ homes as proof of money spent.

Similar scam was unearthed in Guna district in 2017......where the iron doors of 42,000 toilets were built 10kg lighter, leading to siphoning of crores.

Some villagers blew the whistle in Betul’s tribal Lakkadjam panchayat and complained to officials.

The Swachh beneficiaries were not even aware that toilets have been built in their name. On government records, not only do their homes have toilets.

Officials found that all four were photographed in front of a neighbour’s toilet.

“A detailed probe was conducted in Lakkadjam panchayat, and the complaints were found to be true..... For these toilets and other similar anomalies, a recovery of Rs 7 lakh was imposed on the accused.

They appealed against the recovery order, but the penalty was upheld.

Once recovery is done, we will initiate action under IPC,” CEO of Betul panchayat ML Tyagi said.

The panchayat and rural development department has since identified 4.5 lakh such missing ‘paper toilets’ across the state.

In monetary terms, toilets worth Rs 540 crores are missing, said an official.

A survey and physical verification using 21,000 volunteers exposed that 4.5 lakh toilets were missing.

The data will be put in public domain for a clearer picture.