Decision on panchayat members without toilet blocks this week

The fate of 179 gram panchayat members under the Pune Zilla Parishad (ZP) will be decided by the district collector this week. They are likely to be disqualified from their gram panchayat posts or membership for not building toilet blocks at their homes.

Pune Zilla Parishad CEO Anil Kawade said the names have been forwarded to the collector. "It is upto him to take the final call,'' he said. Their fate now rests on the final verification by the district collector. The membership will be terminated as per Section 14 of the Bombay Gram Panchayat Act, 1958. Last year, a list of about 400 members was readied. The number has now come down after many of them got toilet blocks built.

The ZP had earlier issued notices seeking clarification from these members as to why they had failed to build toilets at their homes. The block development officers of the respective areas were asked to visit the houses of every gram panchayat member and verify they have toilet blocks. The disqualification of members who have not built toilet facilities at their homes despite repeated reminders will send a strong message to villagers, said ZP officials. Among the 13 taluks in the district, Khed has the largest number of erring panchayat members.

According to statistics provided by the administrator, of the 1,401 gram panchayats in the district, only 470 have achieved the Nirmal Gram status so far. As per the estimate, around 6.25 lakh toilets are planned in the district while districts in western Maharashtra such as Kolhapur and Satara are close to the 100 per cent target set by the Union government.

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