JOIN USPublic places turn urinals due to lack of toilets in City
The dearth of public toilets in the City has resulted in people using public places as urinals.
There are just about 400-500 public toilets for a population of about one crore, according to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Out of them, nearly 50-100 public toilets are not functioning due to lack of water, maintenance, among others.
There are a total of 198 wards in the City. But most of them have just one or two functional public toilets.
Former mayor and corporator of Kathriguppe ward, D Venkatesh Murthy, said corporators receive Rs 2 crore every year for development of wards but face problems in setting up toilets due to lack of space and opposition from public. “Presently, there is just one public toilet in my ward. I wanted to build one inside the Narasimhaswamy Park. But some citizens did not want it inside the park.”
In 2013, the civic body invited tender for maintenance of toilets wherein pourakarmikas were about to be deployed for the execution of the work. But, there were some internal issues between Palike and pourakarmikas, and hence, that also did not take shape, he said.
N Nanjunda Swamy, a resident of Vijayanagar, said: “There is just one public toilet near Vijayanagar main bus stand. But it is unhygienic. We are forced to use the pay and use toilets.”
Palike spokesperson S S Khandre said that public toilets are being maintained by Zonal Chief Engineers of BBMP and around 10-15 of them are being looked after by Sulabh.
Another Corporator, from Ganesha Nagar ward, L Govindaraj, pointed out that there are four public toilets in his locality but only two of them are in working condition.
“Ideally for every ward, there should be four to five public toilets,” he maintained.
‘Will float tenders’
Mayor B S Satyanarayana, who acknowledged the present status of the public toilets in the City, told Deccan Herald that soon the Palike will float tenders for putting up 100 e-toilets in the City and already discussions are on regarding their implementation.
While some Palike officials said there are around 400-500 toilets in the City, the exact number is still not available with them.
When a few zonal chief engineers were contacted, they said they do not handle the public toilets and it comes under health engineers. When the latter were asked about the number, they were clueless about it.