Maharashtra Water Conservation Minister Ram Shinde has landed himself in a controversy after a video clip in which he is purportedly seen urinating by roadside has surfaced on social media today.
The incident occurred on a stretch on the Solapur-Barshi road when the minister was travelling in his car.
When contacted, Mr Shinde told that he urinated in the open as he was feeling ill after spending nearly a month touring the state for the government's flagship Jalyukta Shivar scheme.
"I have been travelling continuously from the last one month taking review of the Jalyukta Shivar scheme. Continuous travelling in high temperatures and dust made me ill. I was suffering from fever today and when I couldn't find a toilet while travelling, I had to relieve myself in the open," Mr Shinde said.
However, the opposition NCP said the minister not finding a toilet on a highway shows that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swacch Bharat Abhiyan has failed.
"It is now proved that the government has been looting people in the name of Swacch Bharat cess on petrol and diesel," NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said.
"How can the Prime Minister expect people to follow discipline when his own ministers are a bunch of undisciplined people? If the minister did not find a toilet on a highway, it means the government has all along been looting people in the name of Swacch Bharat cess on fuel. The minister has proved that the whole scheme is nothing but a big failure," Mr Malik said.
A day after the video of Maharashtra Water Conservation Minister Ram Shinde peeing by the roadside surfaced, the Congress today took a dig demanding that he be appointed as the "brand ambassador" of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan for the state.
Taunting the minister, Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said Shinde proved on World Toilet Day yesterday that Maharashtra has become open defecation free.
"...He should be appointed as the brand ambassador for Swacch Bharat mission of the state government," Sawant said in a statement issued here today.
He accused the government of patting its back on "non-existing development".
"Earlier, Urban Development department had shown a photo of Bangkok to showcase development. Then it went on to claim how villages, which were not even included in the Jalyukt Shivar scheme, had benefitted from it," he said.
Citing the figures obtained from the RTI, Sawant said the government created only 1,624 toilets in Mumbai in the last three years and that many people still defecate in the open in the megalopolis.
"The CM had announced two years back that the government will create 50,000 toilets for women in the city. Not a single toilet has been constructed as yet," he claimed.
