Public toilets in need of maintenance

Ajay Joshi 

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 19

Sooner or later the city is going to be a smart city and residents have high hopes that the city will also become a place where people would not find any inconvenience and everything would be placed nicely, no littered garbage, no sewerage problem, safe and secure city, proper roads and lighting, cleaner and greener surroundings and what not from the good list. 

Public toilets and restrooms are no other things. Though the city has fewer number of public toilets also called ‘Sulabh Shauchalaya’ but at least it has it unlike other few states where there are no public toilets in the interiors of the city apart from bus stands or railway stations. 

The Municipal Corporation (MC) boasts of having 4-6 public toilets, which is again an unsure figure but the filthy and grim sight of these toilets is nonetheless better than having no such emergency spots. Forget about using these toilets ladies don’t even think about stepping into these toilets as the filthy smell is enough to keep them away form their entrance. 

But, now men also distanced themselves from these toilets. Earlier the civilised men used to take advantage of these toilets rather then urinating in public but the lack of maintenance have forced them to better look at public places rather than bearing the smell erupting from these urinals. 

Rajesh Singh, a commuter and his friends said, “We also feel ashamed while urinating in public but what to do when the toilets are not clean. We fear of getting diseases from these toilets therefore it’s quite preferable to urinate in public.

Agreeing to this, his friend Mukesh said, “The city will anyhow become a smart city but before that the government needs to take steps to improve the already ill-conditioned basic facilities.”

Taking cognizance of the existing public toilets most of the residents have the same opinion that the lack of cleanliness, improper water supplies, and irregular maintenance, are the only reason for avoiding the use of these toilets. The workers working at a dhaba which is adjacent to a public toilet at  PUDA Complex near Suvidha Centre expressed their grief on how they are forced to keep the toilet clean always as they were obliged to serve their customers in a clean environment. 

One of the workers said, “We don’t even know that whether MC has appointed any supervisor to keep a check on the cleanliness and maintenance of the toilets as they have never seen any government appointed worker cleaning the toilet. Every time they only clean it.”

When enquired Girish Dayalan, CEO, Smart City Mission, said, “No special projects have been added under the mission for constructing public toilets but the MC has already passed a proposal to built them under Sulabh Sauchalaya contact as swiss challenge therefore a tie-up has already been done under smart city project so the maintenance and setting up of public toilets would be possible.”

Meanwhile Mayor Jagdish Raja told within six months, the city would have more number of toilets in service for the public. Thirty-four sites have already been earmarked for constructing 40 public toilets urinals at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore. Rainaik Bazar, Civil Hospital, Workshop Chowk, Model Town locations, Jyoti chowk and other areas are the prime locations where these toilets will be set up . 

On the maintenance of the existing toilets the Programming Officer of the MC, Chaman Lal, had no idea about it as he said, the contract was under Sulabh Shauchalaya contractors so their maintenance responsibility was under Sulabh workers.