Jaipur:
Having a toilet at home has been made compulsory for candidates in Rajasthan's Municipal elections. The new law -- brought into force by an ordinance or executive order -- comes a month before local elections are to be held.
There is a second condition - all candidates must have studied till Class 10 -- and they need to make these two declarations under oath, as an affidavit.
Calling the new law a commitment to the Clean India and Clean Rajasthan (Swach Hindustan and Swach Rajasthan), government spokesperson Rajendra Rathore said, "This is a progressive decision by the state government."
But the Congress has criticised the government's decision.
Speaking to NDTV, state Congress chief Sachin Pilot said the Rajasthan government had brought in the decision "by stealth" and not through the state assembly as it "ought to have done".
"Why was this criteria not announced when they made educational qualifications compulsory for panchayat members and why don't they implement this for MPs and MLAs first?" he asked, referring to a rule made in January, ahead of the panchayat elections, that made education till Class 10 compulsory for candidates.
That time too, the state had taken the ordinance route - which has been challenged in court by the Congress and the civil society. The party claimed the law would bar half the possible candidates from contesting.
But the government claims it was the "successful implementation" of the law that had spurred it to replicate it for the municipal elections.
"We were inspired by the results of the panchayat elections and we saw the number of educated people who won the election so we decided to include this for municipal bodies as well," Mr Rathore claimed.
In August, elections will be held for 129 municipal bodies, of which the biggest is the Ajmer municipal corporation (how come? Not Jaipur?). the others are municipal councils and municipal bodies.