BENGALURU: Five years after the ambitious
Swachh Bharat Mission was kicked off, only six toilets have been constructed on the 180km stretch of NH-75 between
Bengaluru-Nelamangala
and Hassan district toll booths, as per figures provided by the
National Highways Authority of India
(NHAI).
A visit to SBM toilets on the stretch, however, shows only four are open, while the other two are locked, rendering them unusable. The open toilets, too, are unusable with broken doors, unavailability of water and lack of cleanliness.
There are currently four toll plazas between Bengaluru and Hassan, on either side of which toilets are supposed to be constructed. However, the two toilets— one at Doddakarenahalli and another at Bellur Cross — are still at the ‘foundation stage’, NHAI officials said, adding that land issues and opposition from gram panchayats are the hurdles. The two toilets will be constructed only by March 2020, according to the authority.
Currently, SBM toilets have been constructed at the toll plazas in Doddakarenahalli (1), Bellur Cross (1), Shantigrama (2) and Kirisave (2).
Frustrated by the lack of proper toilets on her regular commute between Bengaluru and Sakleshpur, Archana K, a resident of the Hassan town who works as a social worker in Bengaluru, started a petition recently, which has garnered around 50,000 signatures so far. She also found that women were being charged Rs 3 or Rs 5 more than men for using the SBM toilets.
“I regularly travel between Sakleshpur and Bengaluru for work and on many of these five-hour bus journeys, I had to wait till the end to use a toilet. Often, I found SBM toilets on the way were unusable. There is usually no running water available, the doors of many are broken and they have dirty paint buckets in which larvae are seen accumulating,” said Archana.
Somasekhar SP, project director, NHAI, Bengaluru, who also holds the additional charge of project director, NHAI, Hassan jurisdiction, had this to say: “NHAI, Karnataka division has completed the task of widening NH75 (between Bengaluru and Hassa)] from 2 to 4-lane. Now, under directions from the ministry of road transport and highways, construction of toilets and civic amenities has been taken up under Swachh Bharat Mission. Under this, six toilets for women and the disabled are operational, with all amenities and safety features. The estimated timeline for completion of the other two is March 2020.”
Asked about the lack of maintenance at the existing toilets, NHAI officials said the contract has been given to Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Ltd.