Locked public toilets bring ‘disgrace’ to civic body

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 11

Even a month after its inauguration by the MC, the toilets at the Company Garden haven’t been made operation so far. Surprisingly, the toilets are locked by some individual, who don’t want the same near a particular ground where youngsters play volleyball. MC officials seem helpless. In the absence of water, stink emanates from the urinals.

“It is strange that some people are not allowing the MC to make the toilets functional in the garden. The MC should take action against such people and make the toilets functional,” said Kulwant Singh, a city resident.

Some of the visitors claimed that a senior BJP leader was behind the mess. When contacted, he refuted the allegations, claiming that he never meddled in such trivial issues.

Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu and the then MC Commissioner Sonali Giri had inaugurated the toilet project with pomp and show on March 5. While talking to The Tribune, Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu and Giri had claimed that installation had been completed and the water and sewerage connections were provided, so the toilets would be functional after the inauguration. But even after the passage of a month, the toilets are not functional.

MC Executive Engineer Sanjay Kanwar said, “We inaugurated it in March. People, who play in a nearby playground, have locked the toilets. We have also locked toilets as these would be functional after completion of the project. It will take two months.”

When asked about people urinating in the open causing stink, Kanwar said, “People don’t have civic sense and we are not responsible for it.”

It is worth mentioning here that the MC had installed a set of toilets in the Company Garden last year to meet the demand of public but failed to give water connection. The government has spent lakhs of rupees on such projects under the Swachh Bharat Mission.