VIJAYAWADA: Women’s groups will now clean public toilets. Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, addressing municipal commissioners here on Wednesday, wanted them to keep their towns and cities clean and prevent public defecation at all costs.
He, in fact, dared the municipal commissioners whether they would be able to confidently set a deadline by which they would be able to prevent public defecation in their respective towns.
The chief minister, underscoring the need for hygiene and sanitation in towns, wanted the municipal commissioners to entrust maintenance of public toilets to women’s groups. “If necessary, they could be trained in this work,” Naidu said.
He said already women’s groups were maintaining toilets in 50,000 schools and it is necessary that the municipal commissioners should hold talks with mandal, district and state level women’s groups to rope them in for maintenance of public toilets.
The chief minister also focussed on proper management of solid and liquid wastes. He expressed concern over sewerage polluting groundwater. He wanted treatment of sewerage water and then used for industrial purposes. This way ground water could be protected and the sewerage water would be put to meaningful use. He wanted the municipal commissioners to look for ways to use solid waste to generate power.