The people of Nageypur, the model village in Varanasi adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are agitated.

The village mainly has two problems—open defecation and clogging of water that flows from kitchens and toilets. Out of its 525 families, less than 200 in this village have pucca toilets.

Understanding this, the Prime Minister’s Office offered to construct about 435 toilets in the village. While the State built 150 toilets, the PMO constructed 100, most of them made of Fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP).

But people are unhappy about the way this “development” is taking place. “On a fine morning, a contractor from Gujarat and his workers started fixing these fibre toilets in our area, without telling us a word. Soon, people realised that it’s difficult to use those toilets. In 40 degree temperature we felt we were melting inside. Also, it was stinking inside, as the construction was not done properly and the pit was very small,” said Paras Nath Rajbhar, the sarpanch of the village.

The villagers complained to the PMO about the problem. “They changed some of the FRP toilets with tin-made toilets, which were more problematic. To make it worse, the contractor stopped working. He built just 100 toilets and went away with money for 150 toilets. Where has the money of 50 toilets go? We have complained to the PMO,” Rajbhar added. Navsari’s Member of Parliament CR Patil, who assists Modi in Varanasi, told BusinessLine that the complaints of the villagers will be addressed.

“We heard about the complaints. We are ready to help them build a canal to avoid water clogging. Basically, the sarpanch is trying to obstruct the work. The villagers want to build toilets on their own using the money from MPLAD (Member of Parliament Local Area Development). That cannot be allowed,” Patil said and added that various agencies are implementing projects to make Varanasi clean.

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