Dedicated agitation spots lack drinking water, toilet facilities

ut, at these police-approved protest venues that host hundreds – sometimes thousands – of people, there are not a single public convenience facility. This not only leaves the agitators in the lurch, it also puts the local residents at the receiving end.

While the Greater Chennai Corporation cites the lack of mobile toilets as the reason, protestors allege that the police and civic officials intentionally avoid providing facilities in order to disperse the agitators.

As per a recent order issued by the city police, there are 25 spots that have been approved to conduct agitations, including demonstrations, dharna and protest fasts. However, many of those, including the key protest spots near the Government Guest House in Chepauk and Narayanappa Street near Chennai Collectorate, do not have any such facilities.

“The Chennai Corporation should provide mobile toilets and drinking water facilities at the spots of public gatherings, including during the time of agitations. They used to provide mobile toilets in past, but have stopped maintaining them now,” P Srinivasalu, general secretary of Chennai Corporation Red Flag union said.

When DT Next visited some of the agitation spots, most of them including the Government Guest House in Chepauk and Narayanappa Street were found lacking public toilets. There is a public toilet near Valluvar Kottam, which, however, was built keeping tourists in mind. Due to this, the menfolk among the protesters are forced to relieve themselves on the road, which in turn affects the local residents.

“If officials cannot provide such facilities, why should we conduct protests at the approved spots instead of gathering at spots of our choice? Due to the lack of toilets, protestors are forced to use open spaces. Women protestors are the worst affected due to this,” Srinivasalu added.

He alleged that the Chennai Corporation officials had deliberately closed all the public toilets inside the Ripon Buildings when the association staged a demonstration inside the premises recently.

When asked a Chennai Corporation official, he said that the civic body has some mobile toilets, but they are in such bad condition that they had to hire private mobile toilets to be stationed at the recently concluded Global Investor Meet venue. “However, we are planning to procure four mobile toilets using Nirbhaya Fund. These will be provided in places of gatherings, including protests,” the official added.