A village panchayat in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul district fined a family Rs 75,000 for defecating in the open instead of using a toilet built in their house. The panchayat of Rambhakhedi village also served notices to 43 other families, reported PTI.

“We warned the villagers several times, but they were not ready to use the toilets at home,” said village sarpanch Ramrati Bai.

The family has been fined for a month, at a rate of Rs 250 a day for each of its 10 members. “They were fined under the Madhya Pradesh Panchayat (Swachhata Tatha Nuisance Nivaran Tatha Upshaman) Rules, 1999,” PTI quoted the panchayat’s employment assistant, Kunwarlal, as saying.

Eliminating open defecation is a part of the Centre’s Swachh Bharat mission. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that his government would achieve the goal by the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in 2019.