NEW DELHI: The celebrations over the 100 open-defecation districts in the country are not over yet, but the areas under North Delhi Municipal Corporation do not have even one clean public toilet.
It is common to see people easing themselves in the open in the biggest of all the three corporations of Delhi. Thanks to a blame game that has been going between the officials and the politicians.
A move to get water jet spray machines to clean the toilets as far back as 2004 has not materialised in the areas under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation.
“The first proposal to hire 104 jet machines was made in 2004, but budget was a problem then. Also, there was no response from supplier companies, which led to scaling down the order to 64 in 2006. But no new tender was floated.
After the elections, the tenders were again called in 2012 for 50 machines, but that also did not elicit any response. Another tender came in 2015 for 69 machines, but with the same result,” said an official of the Department of Environment Management Service (DEMS), which looks after public utility and sanitation.
According to the official, the last two months saw two tenders being floated for 46 machines and so far no company has shown interest although the last date for opening the technical build is April 5.
“The bigger issue is that due to the financial situation of the North Corporation, no company is willing to invest in this project after the trifurcation of the corporation. We are barely able to pay salaries of our employees, so nobody wants to invest,” the official said.
As per the tender document, a water tank with a minimum of 800 litres capacity, attached with a high pressure jetting pump mounted on a vehicle is required to clean 20 public urinals on a daily basis. The company would be given the contract for a minimum of seven years. The company is also responsible for removing any blockage in the toilet.