'Planned' Salt Lake has no plans for urinals

bidhannagar: men still have the open fields, but women in bidhannagar - apparently eastern india's most well planned satellite township - can only hope a kindly resident allows them to use their guest room toilet if they feel the urge to relieve themselves while travelling in and around salt lake. built across an area of about 12.5 square kms this "planned city" has only one urinal complex in karunamoyee.and that too closes after 8.30 pm. an official in the sewerage department of bidhannagar municipality said there were just four urnals in ward number 19, 20 and 23. incidentally all of them are in "added area" where there is an acute problem of water and sanitation. chairman of bidhannagar municipality dilip gupta though 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. the public toilet in karunamoyee that does exist, closes down at 8.30 pm. "nobody remains out in salt lake after that time. so what is the point of keeping our man posted there after 8.30," gupta reasoned. an official of the sewerage department said they were planning a few mobile toilets. but what of the women? "women can always go to any of the toilets which are there in every block market and relieve themselves," he said. it's a different matter that the block market might be just under over kilometre away. working women who either stay or travel to salt lake five days a week, feel the absence of urinals. shukla chowdhury who is a salesperson assigned to the labony and phalguni area, explained the problem. "we don't drink water when we come here unless we are very thirsty, since it's quite a walk to the nearest toilet," she said. an state government officer in the international bus terminus in karunamoyee said they often allowed women to use their toilets. and with salt lake fast becoming a haven for criminals, most households are reluctant to let in strangers to use their guest room toilet. two women in f/14/1 flat of karunamoyee housing complex said they dared not allow anyone in, even if his or her plea sounded genuine.