Punjab University market washroom locked, desperate visitors paint walls

CHANDIGARH: When nature calls, you won’t find an accessible and clean public washroom at the main market of Punjab University. If you are a woman, you don’t even have the option of easing yourself by a bush or a wall.
The problem could have been solved a year ago when a new public washroom was built behind the market’s State Bank of India (SBI) branch beside the publication bureau.But it was never opened for public use officially, pending a possession dispute between the university and the market committee.
“The university wanted its trader welfare association (the market committee) to appoint own caretaker and look after its facility but the shopkeepers disagreed, and so the toilet remains locked,” said Ramesh, who works in the SBI branch canteen. An older washroom to the left end of the market is operational for long but too dirty for most users. “That washroom is in a disgusting condition,” university student Salim Muhammad said. Nobody can use it. Just go and have a look.”
The absence of a go-to public washroom has hurt the sanctity of the university. Students, shopkeepers, and visitors have painted its walls and obscure corners with a bodily fluid, and left a trail of stinking spots. “The lack of a public washroom forces people to urinate on the walls. How many can I stop?” a shopkeeper said on the condition of anonymity. “The plight of women is worse. Men can use the corners but what about the ladies?”
Vocational education student Asmita Kataria, 19, said: “The lack of a public washroom has created another problem. Visitors want to use our staff and student washrooms, and they leave them dirty, so dirty that I prefer to hold on to my bowels until I get home.” Many visitors and shopkeepers use washrooms at the bank or the dispensary across the street. Meanwhile, the locked washroom without a caretaker is exposed to vandals, drug addicts, and theives, who have stripped it of taps, lids, and toiletries. “They stole hardware worth Rs 35,000 during construction alone,” said canteen worker Ramesh.
Asked about the reason for dispute, Punjab University Traders Welfare Association president Swarnjeet Singh Bhatia said: “How can they expect the market committee to hire a guard and maintain the washroom when we don’t have the resources? We can't do it, they should. They take rent from us and so have the duty to hire a caretaker.”
Sukhvir Singh, owner of Sukhvir Studio on the campus, said: "We don’t like the toilet’s location first of all. It is a lonely, dark, unfeasible, and unsafe spot behind the market, for women especially. At night, it is the den of petty criminals and drug addicts. We had asked the authorities concerned to build a toilet for women at the front of the market itself near a space for the bus stop but they didn’t reply. We don't have the money or the means to appoint a full-time caretaker this place requires for preventing thefts.”