137 open defecation spots in Tiruchy, claim activists

Speaking to the media, Henry Tiphagne, Human Rights activist, said, “Tiruchy is ranked as the sixth cleanest city in the nation by the Swachh Bharat mission. However, contrary to that, the city Corporation has failed to keep the city clean.”

“Most of the public toilets are not maintained well while many are kept locked, forcing the people to defecate in the open places. A special field-research program was conducted across the city in all the 65 wards about toilet-related issues,” he said and showed a photo evidences of the conditions of the public toilets.

He said that the fact finding revealed that due to the improper maintenance of public toilet complexes and lack of proper fund allocation for constructing toilet facility, open defecation still exist in the city despite the civic body proclaiming that open defecation existed in the city.

According to the finding, there are 137 spots identified as open defecation places, while as many as 59 places lacked public toilet facility.

Similarly, as many as 38 public toilets with proper infrastructure were left abandoned due to several reasons, including improper water supply.

Despite having such issues untouched, he alleged that the city corporation is portraying a false status about sanitation. He also added that the copy of the research finding has been sent to the City corporation commissioner and also to the district collector. He also said that the research findings shall be submitted to the special team from Swachh Bharat mission visiting the district for evaluating the city in February 2018.