Haryana village removes ‘Trump’ as it is illegal

Marora’s identity as “Trump Village” only lasted all of three days as the administrator of Mewat district, got banners of the US President pulled down. The naming process was described as illegal and not sanctioned by the government.

Sulabh International had named Marora after Donald Trump on June 24, an ostentatious launch of its project to build toilets in all homes there. Just a day before that, however, the Haryana government had announced the state’s entire rural belt was open-defecation free (ODF). The contradiction was stark.

“Organisers neither took any permission from local authorities, the Haryana or Union governments, nor have they applied for changing the name of the village. It was all illegal,” said deputy commissioner (DC) Maniram Sharma, who was in the news recently for posting photos of ODF offenders on Facebook.

Sulabh International founder Bindeshwar Pathak had named Marora ‘Trump Sulabh Village’ with the consent of the local panchayat and promised to construct toilets in every house, an approach road to its school, a community centre and an aganwadi. Marora has 165 families and, according to Sulabh, just 20 out of 165 houses have toilets.

Marora sarpanch Shaukat Ali said locals had no objection with the name. “We were happy that with the new name, development will come to our village,” he said.