The Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government on Tuesday decided to discard the rule that requires people contesting local body elections to have at least one toilet in their house, reported The Hindu. The local body elections in the state are scheduled for March-April. “Today, the state cabinet approved a proposal to provide relief to the poorest of the poor not having toilets at home, by ending the mandatory requirement of toilets for contesting the local body panchayat polls,” Brajesh Mehrotra, principal secretary to the Cabinet Coordination Department, said.

In August last year, the state government had, through an amendment to the Bihar State Panchayati Raj Act, 2006, made it mandatory for panchayat poll contestants to have at least one toilet in their house by January 1, 2016. Estimates suggest that despite several central and state government schemes for constructing toilets, about 1.5 crore households in Bihar don't have one.