Bihar IAS Officer: 'Sell your wives, if you can't build toilets'

An IAS Officer, while on a drive to promote Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Swacch Bharat" campaign, landed into a controversy when he got miffed at a villager's question and allegedly told him to sell off his wife, if he cannot build a toilet in the house for her.

Kanwal Tanuj, the District Magistrate of Aurangabad, was informing people about the importance of building toilets and he related the act with the dignity of women. Speaking against open defecation he said, “It costs 12,000 to build a toilet. Raise your hands and tell me... whose wife is worth less than 12,000?"

Soon a voice from the audience said, "I don't have money to build a toilet."

The officer who got irritated replied, "I will talk to you. If that is the case then sell your wife. If that is your mentality then go and auction the dignity of your home."

He also commented that people applied for advance payment under a government scheme for toilets and wasted the money.

While a few stated that the minister's comment was misunderstood, others hit back at him.

"If you are an IAS officer, it does not mean that you can say anything," said Samajwadi Party's Juhi Singh.

Rajeev Ranjan of Bihar's ruling Janata Dal (United) said: "(the officer) has a good image but somewhere his words were not right and he was not able to convey what he wanted to say."