The Times Of India 19.11.2010
For PMC, the answer lies in private hands
PUNE: The city may soon have more public toilets. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will float tenders for the setting up of urinals across the city on a build-operate-transfer basis.
The build-operate-transfer (BOT) committee recently decided to allow private players to construct them across the city. In 2007-08, a report published by TOI showed that the city's 30-lakh population had only 352 public urinals. It boiled down to one per 9,000 people.
The civic body has constructed about 772 such toilets with 11,319 seats 5,731 for men and 5,588 for women. However, most are not well-maintained and have been encroached upon. "The situation has not changed much and the civic administration has not utilised the budget provisions for construction of urinals. In fact, corporators in many areas have complains that they don't want urinals in their locality as the local people complain," said a civic officer.
Mayor Mohansingh Rajpal said that the civic administration will study the proposals in detail. Leader of the house Nilesh Nikam said that there is need to increase number of urinals. "The PMC plans to construct urinals on a BOT basis. The entire responsibility of constructing and maintaining the toilets would be the developer's," said Nikam.
The current availability is grossly inadequate as cited by the PMC's own public health norms that want one urinal per 100 people. Women and the disabled are the prime victims of the civic body's apathy. Former municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi introduced a gender budget component in the draft budget for 2009-10. Allocations of Rs 21.96 crore were made. While Rs 1 crore was set aside for the women empowerment scheme, Rs 2 crore was allotted for construction of 250 public urinals for women. According to the plan, all civic offices were to have toilets for women and Rs 1 crore was earmarked. The draft proposed Rs 2 crore for construction of urinals for girls and teachers in civic schools.
"Unfortunately, the gender budget was never implemented and the plans remained on paper," said former mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale. In 1999, then municipal commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad had decided to experiment pay-and-use public toilets in the private sector on a build operate and own principle. The public toilets were to be mainly constructed in slums and NGOs were to be involved in this scheme.
Despite appreciation from the central government, the plan failed as some citizens approached the high court challenging the plan. They complained that the scheme was being implemented without floating tenders and that the management of the toilet blocks was being given directly to a handful of NGOs.
The build-operate-transfer (BOT) committee recently decided to allow private players to construct them across the city. In 2007-08, a report published by TOI showed that the city's 30-lakh population had only 352 public urinals. It boiled down to one per 9,000 people.
The civic body has constructed about 772 such toilets with 11,319 seats 5,731 for men and 5,588 for women. However, most are not well-maintained and have been encroached upon. "The situation has not changed much and the civic administration has not utilised the budget provisions for construction of urinals. In fact, corporators in many areas have complains that they don't want urinals in their locality as the local people complain," said a civic officer.
Mayor Mohansingh Rajpal said that the civic administration will study the proposals in detail. Leader of the house Nilesh Nikam said that there is need to increase number of urinals. "The PMC plans to construct urinals on a BOT basis. The entire responsibility of constructing and maintaining the toilets would be the developer's," said Nikam.
The current availability is grossly inadequate as cited by the PMC's own public health norms that want one urinal per 100 people. Women and the disabled are the prime victims of the civic body's apathy. Former municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi introduced a gender budget component in the draft budget for 2009-10. Allocations of Rs 21.96 crore were made. While Rs 1 crore was set aside for the women empowerment scheme, Rs 2 crore was allotted for construction of 250 public urinals for women. According to the plan, all civic offices were to have toilets for women and Rs 1 crore was earmarked. The draft proposed Rs 2 crore for construction of urinals for girls and teachers in civic schools.
"Unfortunately, the gender budget was never implemented and the plans remained on paper," said former mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale. In 1999, then municipal commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad had decided to experiment pay-and-use public toilets in the private sector on a build operate and own principle. The public toilets were to be mainly constructed in slums and NGOs were to be involved in this scheme.
Despite appreciation from the central government, the plan failed as some citizens approached the high court challenging the plan. They complained that the scheme was being implemented without floating tenders and that the management of the toilet blocks was being given directly to a handful of NGOs.
