This story is from November 13, 2017

Rohtas DM asked to re-verify construction of toilets before making claim for ODF status

Perturbed by a series of reports about large-scale financial irregularities in the toilet construction scheme from different districts, Bihar government on Monday asked Rohtas district administration to get a third party verification done in the construction of toilets before rushing to state secretariat for declaring the district as the “first open defecation free (ODF) district” in the state.
Rohtas DM asked to re-verify construction of toilets before making claim for ODF status
PATNA: Perturbed by a series of reports about large-scale financial irregularities in the toilet construction scheme from different districts, the Bihar government on Monday asked the Rohtas district administration to get a third-party verification done in the construction of toilets before rushing to the state secretariat for declaring the district as the “first open defecation free (ODF) district” in the state.

“Recently, the state government received a proposal from Rohtas district administration for declaration as the state’s first ODF district. But we have asked Rohtas DM to re-verify the claim about construction and use of toilets in each panchayats of every block in the district. Besides the re-verification by district officials, the DM has been asked to get it verified also from a third party, an independent agency,” CM Nitish Kumar said here on Monday.
Responding to a query on multi-crore toilet scam in Patna district and reports of similar irregularities in a few other districts, the CM said the state government had always been cautious about the claims made by the respective administration with regards to the construction of toilets and sanitation programme.
He also said guilty persons would not be spared in the recently unearthed multi-crore toilet scam in Patna district. “Strict actions will be taken against all those who are found guilty of having embezzled public money. This has been our policy,” Nitish said.
Bihar CM further expressed displeasure over the cancellation of the two-day power ministers' conference, scheduled at Rajgir last week, saying the decision to cancel the event at the eleventh hour was not only “impractical”, but it also led to “embarrassment”.
He said several delegates from other states had already reached by then at Rajgir and Patna and some of the delegates from far-off places had already reached Delhi airport when they got information about the cancellation of the event from the union government.
Nitish was responding to a query about the two-day power ministers’ conference, which was to be held on November 10-11 but was cancelled in evening of November 9. “It was an event organised regularly by the government of India after a gap of every six month. Bihar government was just a facilitator,” he said. Nitish also pooh-poohed the allegations of crores of rupees having been misused by the state government on the event.
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