Times
of India: Bhilai: Monday, 31 August 2015.
While few
parts of township area of steel city Bhilai have been given bridal make-up,
citizens rue that basic facilities in the inner ward areas have been neglected.
The excessive obsession of Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) to beautify the township
has drawn flak from different quarters, as this centre point of the city which
is maintained by BSP's township department lacks several basic facilities.
If somebody
with rural background sees the Central Avenue, which runs parallel to the
highway connecting the township from BSP's main gate to JLN Hospital in
Sector-9, for the first-time, he would be stunned. Lights and decorative plants
dominate the stretch. But a few meters inside, various sectors have a different
story. Bad roads, stinking water spilling over the sector road and loads of
wastes have become a regular site after a short spell of rain.
Citizens
living since many decades here have started to raise questions towards
non-existence of public toilets, deteriorating healthcare as well as education
facilities in BSP run hospitals and BSP schools, regular power-cuts, inadequate
supply of drinking water, bad sector roads, lack of dedicated parking policy
and many others.
An RTI with
details of total expenditure and budget allotted between 2010 and 2014 shows
that BSP, under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), on an average,
spends about Rs 1,289 lakh annually and the average annual budget allotment for
the above said period is around Rs 1,566.5 lakh. However, basic facilities to
the residents of township leave much to desire.
The BSP's CSR
department claims to have constructed and donated over 140 toilets in the
schools of different districts including Durg, Rajnandgaon, Balod Bilaspur and
Kanker. However, it has never constructed public toilets in key areas of
township. Even at major shopping sites, market and other public places
including Civic Center, zonal market, markets in sector areas and space
allotted for weekly haat bazar, the public toilets are non-existent. BSP run
schools are not sought after anymore. BSP's PR officials say there were more
than 50 BSP run schools in city and at present their numbers have been
curtailed to 27. Citizens say that the deteriorating quality of education is
the main factor that has made staff send their wards in private schools of
city.