Bhawna Gandhi, TNN, Feb 20, 2011,
Its a rather stinking truth about the Millennium City there are not more than 20 public toilets for a population of over two million. The local administrations apathy towards sanitation is clearly visible from the fact that most of these public facilities are located on old Gurgaon, and no new public toilet has been built in recent past.
The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) and Haryana Urban Development Authority ( HUDA) get scores of complaints on a regular about the sanitation problem, but nothing substantial has been done so far.
In an RTI reply, the MCG has accepted that there are only seven functional public toilets in the areas falling under its jurisdiction: main post office, Khandsa Road, Kamla Nehru Park, Bus Stand, Sheetla Mata Road, Feroz Gandhi Colony and Dayanand Colony.
A visit to these hygiene facilities revealed the sorry state of affairs as people preferred to urinate on roadside. Everyone is relieving in open because the public toilets are reeking like hell. It seems that toilets haven't been cleaned for days. There is no water, said one commuter at the bus stand.
To begin with, there are not enough public toilets in Gurgaon. The condition of the few functioning public conveniences is in shambles due to lack of maintenance and years of neglect, said a resident of Dayanand Colony.
Sarita Kumar, a social worker, said that public toilets are so unhygienic that people especially women are vulnerable to deadly infections: It is such a discomfort for women who also have to bear with the torture of seeing men lined up anywhere facing the wall. There is absolutely no toilet for the labourers.
The situation becomes a nightmare for the first timers in Gurgaon. We keep reading about the bad roads and traffic problems, but I couldnt believe that a city like Gurgaon has no public toilets, said Nikhila Lalwani, a resident of Lajpat Nagar in Delhi.
While Old Gurgaon may still have a few defunct structures in the name of public convenience, the other side of the Expressway has none at all. Residents say that a little respite can only be seen in some markets where the traders associations maintain public toilets. According to PK Bhatia, president of Sushant Lok RWA, every market in Sushant Lok has sanitation problem. The market itself is so dirty that one cant even imagine the condition of the washrooms. The market buildings have got the toilets but there is no one to look after them, he said.
When asked, members of some market committees said that it was not there job to clean toilets. We are unable to check drivers, house keeping staff and servants in the markets who leave the toilets dirty. Maintenance agency was also deployed but the workers had usual fights, said official of a market committee.
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