No toilet even in Prime Minister's village
DAMAK, March 10: Open defecation free (ODF) campaign, which had started with an objective to make the country free of open defecation by 2017, still has not succeeded in Jhapa district.
As of now, about 18,000 households in the village are still without toilets. Many of the households of Gauradaha area, the village of the country's executive head Prime Minster KP Oli, still lack toilet. This easily shows how ineffective the ODF campaigns have been in Jhapa.
Gauradaha is also the hometown of the current Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada, actor Sitaram Kattel aka 'Dhurmus', Attorney General Agni Kharel, and Internal Affairs Minister Hikkamat Karki of Province 1.
According to Somnath Patel, coordinator of District Coordination Committee, Jhapa, negligence of the elected representatives have led to failure of the campaign.
“The government had initiated the ODF campaign with the objective of making the country ODF zone by 2017. However, the representatives of Gauradaha Municipality, for some reasons, decided to make it ODF zone only three years later than the stipulated deadline,” said Patel.
In Gauradaha, out of 12,148 households, as many as 3,048 households are without toilets. Likewise, many other local units in the district do not have toilet for basic sanitation.