Zirakpur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream project to have public and community toilets in every corner of the country is still a far cry as any initiative regarding this is yet to reach the town of Zirakpur. As per official records of the Zirakpur town, there is no public or community toilet constructed by the authorities in the area after the scheme was launched by the Central government.
On March 3, 2018, Manoj Das, a resident of Zirakpur, submitted an RTI to find out the number of public toilets constructed in the state in financial years 2016-17 and 2017-18. He sought district-wise data about government-made public toilets in Punjab. In reply, the directorate general of the system and data management told him that documents cannot be provided.
According to 2011 census, the population in the area is more than 3 lakh. A major chunk of this population use the national highway near the town to commute to Patiala, Panchkula and Himachal Pardesh. However, there is no public toilet available for them in the area.
Manoj Das complained that there is no public toilet on the stretch from Patiala Road crossing till the main highway, connecting the McDonald Chowk although there are two major junctions —Patiala chowk and Decathlon stop— for Delhi-bound travellers. “It seems Zirakpur area does not fall under the Swachha Bharat agenda,” he said.
Jyoti Sidana, a resident of Ananta Homes said there are no public toilets for women across Gazipur in Zirakpur. She said this doesn’t necessarily mean Modi’s initiative is a failure. “It’s important that he is talking about the problem. At least, people are finally thinking about it. But without a deeper and broader cultural change in India, the efforts will only result in wastage of lakhs in building toilets that no one uses.
Navjit Singh, another resident of Maya Garden, Zirakpur said public toilets are something which is having no or zero attention from authorities. No measures are being taken by the MC to keep these public conveniences clean. The authorities need to wake up before they end up answering the complaints and queries from people.
President of confederation of resident welfare association, Zirakpur (north) P K Sharma said he has seen security guards of some societies going in open for nature’s call.
S K Wadhwan, another resident said there is no public toilet in and around the market which is required. Residents have demanded it a number of times in the past too, he added.
Swachhta Abhiyan public toilets are mainly provided for the floating population and general public in places such as markets, train stations, tourist places, near office complexes or other public areas, which are crossed by a number of people daily.
A community toilet is a shared facility provided by and for a group of residents or an entire settlement. Community toilet blocks are used primarily in low-income or informal settlements or slums, which face space constraints to provide household toilets .
In the dock:
I know that at present there is no public or community toilet in Zirakpur. However, 24 public and 24 community toilets have been approved by the higher authorities for this area recently. The construction of the same will be started as soon as the tender is allocated to a company. At present, the authorities are working on whether concrete should be used for the construction of these toilets of pre-fabricated materials, which Chandigarh and Mohali use.
Manbir Gill | Executive officer, Zirakpur municipal council
