Rural Development Ministry data shows Modi’s village Nagepur in Varanasi is not open defecation-free, scores zero out of three.
New Delhi: As part of his marquee Swachh Bharat initiative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set an ambitious target of ensuring an open defecation-free (ODF) India by October 2019. This could be a bit of a stretch because as it turns out, the PM’s own adopted village — Nagepur in his Varanasi constituency — is yet to be declared ODF.
Nagepur village was adopted by PM Modi in early 2016 as part of the second phase of yet another pet scheme, the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), under which MPs are to identify and adopt a village in their constituency to turn it into a ‘model village’.
However, according to latest gram panchayat-wise data compiled by the Rural Development Ministry as part of Mission Antyodaya, Nagepur village was not ODF as per the 2011 Census, and isn’t so even as per the 2018 survey.
Of the total score of three (as devised by the ministry), the village has scored a zero. The other two villages adopted by the PM — Jayapur and Kakarahiya — were not ODF as per the 2011 census but have achieved that target now.
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