Hyderabad: Having declared all urban bodies as open defecation free, the government has a big task in maintaining toilets.
In Hyderabad itself, the maintenance of public toilets is poor and some of them were closed within a month of opening. In once such instance, the GHMC constructed a public toilet near Patny crossroads, Secunderabad, a few months back. Due to lack of proper maintenance, it was removed.
In many towns, public toilets do not have ensured water supply, and cleaning amount. In some towns, the public toilets closed by 10 pm. Even in GHMC limits, the public toilets, including those located on busy stretches, are closed by 11 pm.
The public toilet on the busy Osmangunj stretch winds up business by 10.30 pm. This is the only public toilet on the stretch from Abids to Afgalganj. At the Bahadurpura Road, Basheerbagh, Abids and Koti the public toilets are locked by 11 pm.
“People prefer public toilets which has staff to maintain them as they are cleaner. In a city where people work during the night and return home early in the morning, there should be proper toilets open,” said Mr N. Ashish, who works in an IT company.
A few people venture to use unmanned public toilets for fear of being attacked by anti-social elements. “Even if it is open at night no one will use it as there are neither lights nor water,” said Mr Rajendar Goud, a businessman.
As a part of Swachh Bharat Mission, the state government constructed 1,42,216 toilets — individual, public, community and She toilets in urban local bodies. A total of Rs 156.48 crore was spent on building toilets, the Centre paying Rs 55.42 crore and the state government Rs 101.06 crore.
General cleaning should be carried out daily and should follow a systematic approach, it was stated. Toilets should be cleaned during the off-peak hours on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis.
Director, municipal administration, T.K. Sreedevi said the public toilets were being given to private agencies in some municipalities.
She told this newspaper that in other towns the local municipal corporation was looking after public toilets. She said the lack of proper maintenance would be viewed seriously.
