Chhattisgarh Babu builds a pool in times of drought, claims it’s for the villagers

While our news pages bear testament to the severe drought conditions in the country, heat wave and heat-stroke deaths, we were also informed this morning that Rajesh Chandel, District Forest Officer (DFO) of Sukma district in Chhattisgarh, has built a spanking new swimming pool in his government-allotted bungalow. Never mind the fact that he failed to take permission from the Public Works’ Department to construct the pool and that district officials and local businessmen have paid for it. A swimming pool is an obscene extravagance considering how 26 out of 27 districts of Chhattisgarh have been declared drought-hit.

Incidentally, back in 2014, when Chandel was posted as the DFO at Marwahi, Chhattisgarh, Anti-Corruption Bureau investigators conducted raids on his premises and discovered disproportionate assets worth Rs 5 crore. Chandel is also the owner of properties all over Chhattisgarh, including a duplex flat, a farm house, a two-storied residential building and some farming land.

The seriousness of the drought in Sukma is such that villagers have to walk several miles to get drinking water and others are forced to drink contaminated water. Moreover, according to Chhattisgarh’s revenue minister, 309 farmers have committed suicide in the state between January 2013 and January 2016.

Meanwhile, Chandel claims that “water from the pool is pumped to other houses” and has assured everyone that “nobody bathes in it [the pool]”. If you were feeling so altruistic, Mr Chandel, why didn’t you simply build a public pond or replenish a dry well?