Vikas Bhumbe, president of Aadhar Social Foundation,
who sought the info under RTI, said, “Women face hardships when they
travel to the city for work. There is an urgent need for the civic body
to construct more toilets for women. The population of Pimpri Chinchwad
city, as per the 2011 census, is 17.5 lakh and about half of them are
women. This is shocking because the city has a woman as the mayor and
the leader of the ruling party.”

Pimpri Chinchwad mayor Mohini
Lande said, “The civic body will take steps to construct the required
number of toilets for women.”

Bharati Pharande, chairperson of the women
and child welfare committee, PCMC, said, “Various Rotary Clubs have
agreed to construct toilets for women at five busy locations. The PCMC
will provide them land while they will build the toilets and hand them
over to the civic body. The toilets will be operated on pay-and-use
basis.” The committee, Pharande said, has framed a policy to construct
toilets for women at municipal gardens, community centres and vegetable
markets, depending on availability of land.

Manav Kamble,
president of the Nagari Hakka Suraksha Samiti, said, “There should be a
toilet for women at a distance of every one km. They are needed near
schools, vegetable markets and in industrial areas of the Maharashtra Industries Development Corporation. The civic body spends money on implementing projects that are show-pieces while neglects basic amenities of citizens.”

Vikas Patil, president of the Paryavaran Sanvardhan Samiti, said, “We
met civic officials on World Women’s Day and pointed out that the
lacunae. PCMC officials said they will take help of NGOs and private
companies. But, I think the PCMC must do something on its own.”