JOIN USGarbage dump is a living room
A garbage dump has been converted into a living room and a junked car is being used as waste collecting pit.
There is no cleanliness in public urinals and pots are found lying outside some of the toilets.
Such is the sorry state of insanitary conditions prevailing across the so-called posh south Delhi area.
Leader of Opposition in South Delhi Municipal Corporation Farhad Suri conducted an inspection in seven wards under the civic agency on Sunday. These areas included Bhogal, Kasturba Nagar, Chitranjan Park, Sriniwaspuri, Badarpur and Jaitpur.
“The most shocking thing was to see a garbage dump which has been converted into a living area with facilities of air conditioner and cooler at Sunlight Colony in Bhogal,” said Suri. “The man living there told us that he paid Rs 2 lakh to get the control of the garbage dump. Before we could ask him anything else, he escaped,” Suri added.
The apathy towards the waterless urinals can be judged by their pathetic condition, he said.
The team visited pubilc toilets in Hari Nagar, Kotla, CR Park, Badarpur, among other areas.
“It’s a same sad story everywhere. Cleanliness is the main issue and in some places pots have been thrown outside,” Suri added.
“We have been raising the question of insanitary conditions prevailing in the areas under the South Corporation since long. We have been asking the officials to maintain cleanliness in the waterless urinals as sanitation is an obligatory function of the civic agency,” he said.
The concept of waterless urinals came into being in 2010 under the unfied Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). “Crores were spent on their construction but instead of hiring agencies to maintain these facilities, the civic agency hired two advertising companies for their up keep,” said Suri.
“These agencies stopped looking after the cleanliness of these toilets and rather got busy in using the space for making money through advertisements,” he added.
Recently, the South Corporation has passed a proposal to set up new toilets in its areas.
“All of their earlier attempts have proved futile. The civic agency has not learnt from its mistakes yet. First it should take up the task of maintaining the existing public toilets so that it can learn which areas need to be worked on,” he added.