Now, UP gets its Rs 2,900 crore Toilet Scam

April 26, 2012

indian_toilet

Lucknow, April 26: This one really stinks. UP, home to scams of all kinds, ranging from NRHM to land, now has a filthy new entrant: the Toilet Scam.

The state was to build toilets in rural households under the Centre-sponsored Total Sanitation Campaign. The state panchayati raj department told the ministry of rural development that it got 1.71 crore toilets constructed under the scheme in the past one decade. But the household census data says that only 55 lakh rural households have toilets. Which means, 1.16 crore toilets in rural UP are "missing".

The Total Sanitation Campaign was launched in 1999 to end open defecation in India by 2017. The scheme got functional in UP in 2002. Under the programme, various sections of the society were given a subsidy to get permanent toilets built in their houses. In 2002, the amount was about Rs 600; now, this has gone up to around Rs 4,500. Assuming the average expenditure on construction of new toilets was Rs 2,500, the Toilet Scam would work out to Rs 2,900 crore.

The extent of over-reporting has been close to three times , say experts. According to TSC reports, there are only 17.50% households without toilets in rural UP. whereas the census reports that more than 78% of the households do not have latrines within their premises. According to TSC online data, there are two districts in UP, Lakhimpur Kheri and Farrukhabad, where 100% households have toilets whereas census 2011 reports show 81.7% and 76.10% households are without toilets in the respective districts.

The extent of over-reporting has been extremely high in Lucknow as well. The official data for households without toilets says that one in 10 (10.16%) houses don't have toilets. In other words government data says that 89.84% of the households in Lucknow have a toilet. But the census figures say that only 65.6% households have toilets on their premises.

Because of this scam, the very aim of TSC stands defeated in the state with actually now more people defecating in the open. During the decade 2001-2011, of all the people defecating in open in the country, UP alone accounts for 39.05%. In absolute terms, 35.31 lakh households are defecating in the open in the state. And 93% of them are in rural areas. Sources claimed that lack of a monitoring mechanism led to the problem. The union government is now mulling over whether to get the flagship programme examined by CAG auditors.

"A peep into the house of a villager in UP shows how women live without toilets. They go in groups to fields every morning. Some women feel that loose motions are a curse as they have to run to the fields during the day," said Madhu Garg, secretary, All India Democratic Women's Association. She added that the problem for women in urban slums was worse. "In pakka talaab area of Chinhat for instance, women are exposed to eve-teasing when they go out for nature's call," she said.

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Agencies
January 11,2020

New Delhi, Jan 11: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the curative petition of two death row convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case on January 14.

A five-judge Bench of Justices N V Ramana, Arun Mishra, R F Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan will hear the petition filed by Vinay Sharma and Mukesh.

The duo had moved a curative petition in the top court after a Delhi court issued a death warrant in their name and announced January 22 as the date of their execution.

Besides them, two other convicts named Pawan and Akshay are also slated to be executed on the same day at 7 am in Delhi's Tihar Jail premises.

They were convicted and sentenced to death for raping a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in the national capital on the night of December 16, 2012.

The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya, died at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.

A curative petition is the last judicial resort available for redressal of grievances. It is decided by the judges in-chamber.

If it is rejected, they are legally bound to move a mercy petition. It is filed before the President who has the power to commute it to life imprisonment.

The court after issuing a black warrant in their name gave them two weeks' time to file both the curative and mercy petition.

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News Network
March 12,2020

New Delhi, Mar 12: The Supreme Court told the Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday that as of now, there was no law that could back their action of putting up roadside posters of those accused of vandalism during anti-CAA protests in Lucknow.

An apex court bench refused to stay the March 9 Allahabad High Court order directing the Yogi Adityanath administration to remove the posters.

The top court, which grilled the Uttar Pradesh government for putting up such posters in public, described the plea as a matter that needed "further elaboration and consideration".

A vacation bench of justices U U Lalit and Aniruddha Bose said a "bench of sufficient strength" would consider next week the Uttar Pradesh government's appeal against the Allahabad High Court order directing the state administration to remove the posters of those accused of vandalism during anti-CAA protests.

It directed the apex court registry to put up the case file before Chief Justice of India (CJI) S A Bobde so that a "bench of sufficient strength can be constituted at the earliest to hear and consider" the case next week.

During the hearing, the bench told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, that it was a matter of "great importance".

It asked Mehta whether the state government had the power to put up such posters.

The top court, however, said there was no doubt that action should be taken against rioters and they should be punished.

Mehta told the court that the posters were put up as a "deterrent" and the hoardings only said that these persons were liable to pay for their alleged acts during the violence.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for former IPS officer S R Darapuri whose poster has also been affixed in Lucknow, told the bench that the state was duty-bound to show the authority of law backing its action.

He said the action of the Uttar Pradesh government amounted to a "mega blanket" approach of naming and shaming these persons without final adjudication and it was an open invitation to common men to lynch them as the posters also had their addresses and photographs.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

New Delhi, Jul 30: India witnessed a single-day spike of 52,123 COVID-19 cases as the total cases in the country reached 15,83,792, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Thursday.

The total cases include 5,28,242 active cases and 10,20,582 cured/discharged cases, the Health Ministry added.

A total of 775 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 34,968.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state as it reported 9,211 new COVID-19 cases 298 deaths on Wednesday. The total number of cases is now at 4,00,651 including 2,39,755 recovered cases, 1,46,129 active cases and 14,463 deaths.

The total number of cases in Tamil Nadu reached 2,34,114.

Delhi reported 1,035 COVID-19 cases yesterday, taking the total number of cases in the national capital to 1,32,275.

The total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to July 29 is 1,81,90,382 including 4,46,642 samples tested yesterday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

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