BENGALURU: In December last year, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) issued a public notice declaring areas under its jurisdiction as ‘Open Defecation Free’ (ODF). The notice was issued on approval from the BBMP council. However, according to reports from the civic body’s health department, the city has reached only a 65 percent ODF, while it requires to be over 90 per cent, to be certified as ODF. Out of 4,464 applications received for construction of toilets under the Swacch Bharat scheme, 2,996 were approved by the BBMP. Of these 1,953 toilets have been completed, while 172 are still under construction.
“We had received 364 objections on ODF from various wards. We should have completed 90 per cent of 2,996 approved applications. But we found that some of the houses are being reconstructed with a toilet under other schemes. So we need to identify such households and cancel some of the applications. Hopefully the percentage figures should come up by then,” said a BBMP Solid Waste Management (SWM) expert.
Around 800 beneficiaries have received Rs 15,000 as incentive/subsidy to build a low-cost, good quality household toilet. “We have the funds, locations are almost sorted but still the process is taking time. It is very unfortunate,” said another BBMP officer. The civic body also fines only a meagre Rs 100 for open urination.
In addition to this, BBMP is also constructing 416 public toilets and 46 community toilets. The tender document has been submitted and is awaiting approval from the state government. “The city has a problem of open urination instead of open defecation. And in thickly populated areas, it is difficult to identify locations to set up toilets. These toilets are more focused on women and with proper maintenance,” says Sarfaraz Khan, Joint Commissioner (Health, SWM), BBMP adding that they have allotted Rs 14 lakh for its construction.
BBMP mayor Gangambike admitted to the The New Indian Express that the civic body had not reached its target yet. “We had not been able to attend to the shortage due to public objections and identification of location. 10 per cent is pending now and will be completed in the next two to three days. After that, the rest of the work will begin,” she said. But figures show that a lot more remains pending.