RANCHI: A woman allegedly tried to end her life in Deoghar, Jharkhand, after she was denied funds for the construction of toilet under Swacch Bharat scheme.
According to family members, Mita Devi and her husband Surja Chand had been running after officials for the last year but after their efforts bore no fruit, she consumed poison on Sunday morning.
She was admitted to a local hospital in Deoghar by her husband and other family members. Mita is said to be out of danger.
The husband works as a newspaper vendor, while her mother-in-law works as a domestic help.
Mita’s family have been living in a kaccha house for 25 years and used to defecate out in the open. But of late, the place has become densely populated and lack of open space led to the problem.
“Our financial condition is not so good so we submitted an application with the ward councilor but he did not pay heed to it. We then knocked on the doors of Deoghar Municipal Corporation (DMC), but all in vain,” said Surja.
DMC Zonal Chairman Ravi Raut claimed that the incident took place only due to negligence of DMC. Incidentally, the district has been declared open defecation free (ODF) a year back.
“It appears that Mita Devi submitted her application with DMC, but they misplaced it due to negligence. There are at least 1000 such applications pending with them due to which those households still lack toilets,” said Raut. DMC officials could not be contacted over phone.