BHUBANESWAR: Soon you will be able to stop worrying about where to relieve yourself while you're out in the capital. The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday sought the state government's permission to float a tender to begin construction of public toilets.

While 126 public toilets were proposed to be set up at a cost of nearly Rs 12 crore, the BMC would construct 26 toilets at major public places in the first phase. "The public toilet project would be funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation," said city mayor A N Jena.

"The 26 toilets would be set up at a cost of around Rs six crore. We have moved the state housing and urban development (H&UD) department seeking permission for floating the tenders," Jena said.

At present, the city has only 38 public toilets and 25 community toilets, and most of them are in bad shape because of lack of maintenance. None of the major markets in Ashok Nagar, Bapuji Nagar, Saheed Nagar, Unit-IV and Master Canteen that attract hordes of people all through the day, have any toilet facilities. Unit-I Market, one of the largest wholesale markets in the state with over 1,500 shops, has only four urinals and that, too, only for men.

The situation worsens during assembly sessions when hundreds of people from across the state come to the state capital and hold rallies and demonstrations. Though the state government has designated an area for staging demonstrations, the place is without any public facilities, including a toilet. Women protesters are the worst sufferers. Though the civic body had constructed 38 public toilets in public private partnership (PPP) mode, the majority of the people are not even aware that they exist.

"Rules of the World Health Organization say that for every 100 people there should at least be one public toilet. Bhubaneswar, with a population of over eight lakh, should have 8,000 public toilets. But the city does not have even 80," said Sagar Sarangi, a resident of Unit-I area.

NASHIK: The fire department of the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) has prepared a proposal to upgrade prevention and safety measures in civic-run offices, hospitals and halls as per the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, 2006.

According to the proposal, the NMC headquarters at Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, Dadasaheb Gaikwad Hall, Kalidas Kala Mandir, Divisional Office of New Cidco, Dr Zakir Hussain Hospital (Kathada), Jijamata Maternity Home (Old Nashik) and Indira Gandhi Maternity Home (Panchavati) will have to be equipped with the fire safety norms as per height, location and occupancy.

Anil Mahajan, chief of fire brigade, said, "As per the fire safety rules for multi-storeyed buildings, we will be implementing fire prevention and safety provisions in these structures. The fire safety systems, pumps, fire detection systems and all the other mandatory items have all been included in the proposal."

For Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, the cost of installing the upgraded system has been estimated at Rs 33.69 lakh, Rs 20.95 lakh for Dadasaheb Gaikwad Hall, Rs 13.79 lakh for Cidco divisional office, Rs 51.98 lakh for all three hospitals and Rs 25.71 lakh for Kalidas Kala Mandir.

A bill was passed by the state government in July 2006 making it mandatory for municipal corporations to provide fire prevention and life safety measures in different types of buildings. It said that sophisticated equipment and appliances for effectively controlling and extinguishing fires occurring in such buildings will have to be installed along with well-trained staff for handling them.

Besides, the state town planning department had issued notifications to all municipal corporations on June 22, 2012, to upgrade fire safety measures as per the bill.