Times of India: Madurai: Sunday, January 07, 2018.
With Madurai
corporation taking steps to declare itself as an open defecation free city an
RTI application has revealed that about 47 out of the 100 wards do not have
free toilets, which if present, will help the civic body to achieve the target.
K Hakkim, the
founder of the People's Awareness Trust, who filed the RTI query, said that he
decided to file RTI, following regular reports of the civic body's initiatives
to end open defecation and improve its standards as per the Swachh Bharat
Mission. He had sought that he be given the list of free toilets in the 100
wards of the Madurai corporation and received the reply recently.
The report
stated that Madurai city has about 9, 94,997 voters, 12 lakh people and that
thousands of people visit the city for trading and tourism purpose. According
to the reply, there are 341 toilet blocks, with a total number of 1372 toilet
seats. Totally 47 wards do not have toilets. Ward s 1, 5, 8, 31, 33, 36, 38,
40, 59, 60, 62, 66, 72, 89, 90 and even the final ward number 100 do not have
free toilets in their limits.
Also, the
report had specified that there were 40 free toilets in the Mattuthavani bus
stand, which is ISO certified, with a total number of 152 individual toilet
seats. "I strolled through the entire Mattuthavani bus stand, spending
more than two hours but could not find a single free toilet, as all were paid ones,''
said Hakkim. Out of the 341 toilets, it was stated that all but five were
functional.
When
contacted the Madurai corporation commissioner Aneesh Sekhar said that most of
the public toilets in the city, were paid for the purpose of better maintenance,
"There are toilets in about 16 locations in the Mattuthavani, of which one
is free," he said.
.JPG)
.JPG)
