As many as 14 more e-toilets will soon become operational in Mysuru
which was recently adjudged the cleanest city in the country under
medium cities’ category. There are 12 e-toilets already existing.

These
are in addition to the 41 public toilets and 21 community toilets that
were established by the Mysore City Corporation (MCC).

One of the main reasons for increasing the number of e-toilets was the positive feedback the MCC got from the locals.

MCC Executive Engineer Jagannath Jadhav told
The Hindu
that e-toilets were maintenance-free and functions round-the-clock
without the need of an attendant. Any coin can be inserted into the
facility irrespective of the denomination for its use. This measure was
taken to overcome change problem.

He said the new e-toilets were
coming up in places where the density of population was high and also
attracts floating population.

One such facility is coming up outside the MUDA Complex near Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa Circle in Ramakrishna Nagar ‘I’ Block.

The locations identified are either commercial or semi-commercial.

Mr.
Jadhav said that Mysuru has been adjudged the country’s cleanest city
twice and to keep the status alive, a lot of efforts have been put in by
us for maintaining the cleanliness of the city. “Restricting public
urination was on our agenda and therefore we increased the number of
e-toilets to encourage public to use the facility,” he added.

The
MCC has been establishing e-toilets from its own funds. Each toilet
costs Rs. 7 lakh, he said, adding that there has been demand from the
residents and also elected representatives for having them installed in
their localities.

“Even the government offices such as the taluk
office or the Mini Vidhana Soudha have requested for establishing the
facility near the office. This largely addresses the nuisance of
urination in public but the support from the public was equally
important to realise the vision of Swachh Bharat Mission,” he observed.