Haryana now has a ''Trump'' village

Gurugram, June 23

Though it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has been pushing for building toilets under the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, it is US President Donald Trump who is getting publicity. At least in Haryana.

A village in Haryana was on Friday dedicated to Trump, ahead of Modi's US trip. From now on, Marora village, some 46 km from here, will be known as "Trump Sulabh Village".

The renaming was carried out by NGO Sulabh in a symbolic gesture to promote Indo-US relations.

Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak also launched various projects for all-round development of Marora panchayat in Haryana's Mewat region.

The village is home to nearly 1,800 people, mostly Meos (Muslims). It has 160 houses but at present only 20 have toilets.

Earlier, Marora village panchayat had unanimously passed the resolution to officially change the name of the village.

The NGO on Friday started building 10 toilets in individual houses, a Sulabh spokesperson told IANS and the rest of 130 houses will also get toilets later, so that the village can be declared open defecation free (ODF).

Sulabh has also a blueprint to provide drinking water to every house.

Pathak, during a programme in Washington a few days ago, had announced that he would name an Indian village after Trump, as part of his efforts to strengthen bilateral relations.

Sulabh, which provides affordable sanitation and toilets to end the practice of manual scavenging, is also collaborating with a number of Public Sector Undertakings and corporate houses to build public and individual toilets across the country.

It has so far constructed nearly 10.5 million household toilets and 8,500 public toilets used by nearly 15 million people daily across the country.  — IANS