NEW DELHI: Given the rising number of vehicles on roads across the country, the government may allow registration of vehicles only after production of parking space availability certificate.
Union minister Venkaiah Naidu also said that in future, permission would not be given for any construction unless it has a provision for toilets. “In future, it would be mandated (that) no permission would be given to any construction without a toilet... no car or vehicle should be registered without adequate parking space availability certificate,” said the Union Urban Development Minister, who on Thursday launched ‘Google Maps Toilet Locator App’ to enable people to locate the nearest public toilet for use in NCR cities and Bhopal and Indore in Madhya Pradesh. He said the facility, now available in Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Noida and the two cities of Madhya Pradesh, would help address the issues of open urination and open defecation.
Using the key word ‘Swachh Public Toilet’, users can access 5,162 public toilets located near malls, hospitals, bus and railway stations, fuel stations, metro stations and public and community toilet complexes in the five cities in NCR and 703 in Bhopal and 411 in Indore. The app will also give information about the nature of the toilet seat available, free or pay for use, working hours, etc. This facility will be extended to other cities eventually.
The Ministry of Urban Development has partnered with Google to enable this service. Underlining he was “very keen” to put in place such riders for vehicle registration, Naidu said his ministry was in discussions with the Surface Transport Ministry in this regard. “I am holding discussions with Nitin Gadkari and also
sensitising the states. We are moving in that direction (to get such a mechanism implemented),” he said.
The minister said the objective of achieving Open Defecation Free (ODF) status for cities and towns entails not only construction of toilets but also ensuring regular use.
Naidu presented ‘Swachhta Certificates’ to 12 cities and towns that have become ODF recently, with their claims verified independently by the Quality Council of India. These are: Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, Thanesar and Sirsa in Haryana, NDMC, Suchindram and Mailadi in Tamil Nadu and Khopoli, Kolhapur and Nandurbar in Maharashtra.