NEW DELHI: The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has issued a notice to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Commissioner over the use of acid in cleaning MCD public toilets and demanded that an FIR should be registered against the officials who have issued directions over usage of acid.
The commission, in the notice, asked for details of MCD toilets in which operating and maintaining agencies have been directed to use acid to clean the toilets along with their contact document. “The MCD itself is encouraging the use of acid in its toilets. The Supreme Court has issued strong directions against the usage, sale and storage of acid.
But, instead of preventing the use of acid, the civic body is deliberately asking its agencies to use acid for toilet cleaning which is very unfortunate,” said DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal. Senior officers from the city zone appeared before the commission with a written reply that stated that no guidelines have been issued by the civic body to prevent the usage of acid for the cleaning of its public toilets.
She said that an FIR should be filed against the officials who have been involved in issuing such directions to MCD. “Further, the MCD should issue strict directions to toilet maintaining agencies to prevent the use of acid for cleaning toilets,” she said.
The commission also sought details of officials who are responsible for this illegal act of directing agencies to use acid to clean the toilets along with the action taken against them. The notice was issued after the panel found a 50-litre canister containing acid inside a public toilet opposite GB Pant Hospital in Daryaganj.
The panel was informed by cleaners as well as a staff of the agency given a contract by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for maintaining and operating the toilet complex that they purchase acid every month to clean the toilets.
The MCD, in its reply to the DCW, pointed out Rule 36 of the terms and conditions of the contract agreement according to which a penalty of `1,000 per day shall be imposed on the agency in case it does not use acid to clean the toilets on a weekly basis.
The officers verbally informed the commission that most of the agreements that MCD has signed with private agencies for the operation and maintenance of toilets follow the same format as that of the one presently in question.
Noting that this act is in contravention to the directions issued by the Supreme Court on the use of acid in the country, the panel said in imposing such illegal conditions on the agency, MCD has encouraged the agency to do an illegal act and has risked the lives of the women and girls in the national capital.
‘Most agreements follow same format’
The MCD, in its reply to DCW, pointed out Rule 36 of the terms and conditions of the contract agreement according to which a penalty of `1,000 per day shall be imposed on the agency in case it does not use acid to clean the toilets on a weekly basis. The officers verbally informed the commission that most of the agreements that MCD has signed with private agencies for the operation and maintenance of toilets follow the same format as that of the one presently in question.