COIMBATORE: A group of guest workers were accommodated in a public toilet for more than a month by a contractor engaged by the Tirupur Corporation to maintain toilets.
After the video of two workers living and preparing food in a room in the toilet premises went viral, the civic body authorities shifted them to a different accommodation.
The toilet was built recently at a cost of Rs 35 lakhs under Swachh Bharat Mission at the premises of Nanjappa Municipal Boys Higher Secondary School. The workers were staying in the stench-filled toilet premises, which is used by a large number of people who visit the library in the school, besides morning and evening walkers.
Tirupur Corporation Commissioner Pavankumar G Giriyappanavar said that a contractor who was engaged by the Corporation to maintain toilets made the workers stay in the ‘monitoring room’ of the toilet.
“The contractor had provided them with accommodation outside. But they had mistakenly stayed in the toilet room. A notice has been issued to the contractor why action should not be initiated against him, including termination of his contract,” he said.
The Commissioner added that an inquiry is under way to ascertain if the workers were forced to stay in the toilet. “The workers were relocated to the alternative place of accommodation soon after receiving information three days ago,” Pavankumar said.