Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday announced in the Legislative Assembly that the government would build 50,000 toilets for women in the city in the next three years to resolve the problem of sanitation. Admitting lapses in constructing the toilets, the CM said the technical issues would be resolved soon.
“We have prepared a policy to build toilets under which it is assumed that one toilet seat should come per 35 men and one seat per 25 women. However, the current ratio is one seat per 50 people. We are going to build 50,000 toilets for women in the city in the next three years. We are short of one lakh toilets at present. The measures are taken under Swachch Maharashtra Abhiyan,” Mr Fadnavis said. He was replying in the Assembly to a query related to unavailability of toilets.
The issue was raised by legislators Sunil Raut, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Varsha Gaikwad and Ashish Shelar expressing concern over issues such as shortage of toilets in the city, lack of maintenance and non-availability of water and electricity in the toilets. The legislators also pointed at a report by an organisation which stated that 12 per cent women prefer open defecation rather than going to non-maintained toilets. The women also feel unsafe to go to toilets that are far from the slums and lack basic facilities such as water and electricity, the legislators added.
In his reply, the chief minister said he would instruct the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) and local bodies to look into the maintenance of the toilets. He even said he would seek information on how much funds have been spent on building and maintaining the toilets.
“We have also got relaxation from CRZ (Coastal Regulation Zone) norms from the Centre to build toilets in the coastal areas. This will help in building more toilets in coastal areas. Also, permission from land-owning authority would not be required,” the chief minister said.
