‘Lota march’ in Muzaffarpur to seek release of toilet funds

MUZAFFARPUR

: The beneficiaries of Lohia Swachch Abhiyan scheme in Aurai block on Wednesday adopted a peculiar way to protest against the officials for their “callous” attitude in making payments to them for construction of toilets.

Over 200 men, women and children reached the block office with ‘lota (a globular water container)’ in their hands as part of the protest.

The ‘lota march’, organised under the banner of Jan Sangharsh Morch (JSM), was led by a social worker Akhilesh Yadav. Yadav had earlier announced to launch a massive protest march on the occasion of ‘Makar Sankranti’ if payment is not made to the beneficiaries of the scheme by January 10.

“I chose this day as it is a day for making us ‘swachch (clean)’. The day marks the first day of the Sun’s transit into Makara (Capricorn). A sum of Rs 12,000 was to be given as incentive after construction of toilets in the houses of the selected beneficiaries. We met block development officer, circle officer and sub-divisional officer (east) several times, but in vain. Hence, we decided to hold a ‘lota march’ to draw the attention of the officials concerned,” Yadav said.

Aurai BDO Vinod Kumar Prasad said all required processes for making payments under the scheme were underway. “There were some technical glitches due to which we were unable to process the payments. The glitches have been rectified and the payments will be made by the end of February,” he said.


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