‘Planned city’ offers one toilet

bidhannagar: men still have the open fields, but women in bidhannagar apparently, eastern india's most well-planned satellite township can only hope that a kindly resident allows them to use their guest room toilet if they need to relieve themselves while travelling in and around salt lake. built across an area of about 12.5 square km, this 'planned city' has only one toilet complex in karunamoyee.and this, too, closes after 8.30 pm. an official in the sewerage department of bidhannagar municipality said there were just four urinals in ward no. 19, 20 and 23. incidentally, all of them are in an 'added area' where there is an acute problem of water and sanitation. chairman of bidhannagar municipality dilip gupta, however, feels the situation is not a very grave one. there is absolutely no problem with the situation. there are enough urinals here and honestly, plans to build more public toilets do not figure in our scheme of things as of now, he said. he justified closing the karunamoyee toilet at 8.30 pm, saying, nobody remains out in salt lake after that time. so what is the point of keeping a man engaged after 8.30 pm. an official of the sewerage department said they were planning a few mobile toilets. but what about the women? women can always go to any of the toilets which are there in every block market, he said. it is a different matter that the block market might be a kilometre away. women who work in salt lake five days a week sorely feel the absence of urinals. shukla chowdhury, a salesperson assigned to the labony and phalguni areas, explained, we don't drink water when we come here unless we are very thirsty, since it's quite a walk to the nearest toilet. a state government officer at the international bus terminus in karunamoyee said they often allowed women to use their toilets. and with the township fast becoming a haven for criminals, most households are reluctant to let strangers use their toilet. two women in f/14/1 flat of karunamoyee housing complex said they dared not allow anyone in, even if the plea sounded genuine.