HUBBALLI: Those who were caught peeing on the walls in Hubballi were given a unique gift by the volunteers of ‘Colour My City’ campaign.
The campaign aims at keeping the city walls clean by painting them for the last six months.
It’s a common sight in Hubballi and Dharwad where many men urinate on the roadside and sometimes just outside the public toilets. On Monday, the volunteers of the campaign decided to take photographs of the people, who urinate on the walls. In just one hour, about 50 men peed on the walls.
Then they handed over roses to the ‘pee masters’ after showing their peeing photographs. Some of them thought that they are going to be penalised and reluctantly accepted the red roses. Some promised the volunteers that they would not urinate in the open henceforth.
The volunteers said though there is a public toilet beside Idgah Maidan, people tends to urinate on public walls. There is a need to implement strict regulations to make Hubballi-Dharwad a clean city. Also, the authorities should join hands with the NGOs to build toilets.
“To solve the problem, more public toilets and urinals should be built around the city and market areas. People opt for open defecation and urination as they don’t have access to toilet nearby very often. Lack of facilities in India is a problem, especially for women as they cannot go in the open as easily as men. We have been urging the authorities to build adequate urinals for women too. Just having more toilets is not enough. Civil society should be involved in their upkeep. But ultimately, the government needs to step in with fines to ensure that the toilets are usable,” said Kiran Uppar, who is heading the campaign.
“Indiscriminate pasting of banners in public places also distroy the image and environment of Hubballi-Dharwad cities. Most of these posters are pasted illegally, without taking permission from the authorities. ” Uppar added.