Hyderabad: Inauguration delays put public toilets out of bounds

Srinagar Colony: As part of Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, though the construction of public toilets has been completed six months back at Srinagar colony, but they still await official inauguration from the authorities. The undue delay of throwing open the facility which could have provided relief to the pedestrians and commuters awaiting at the bus shelter at the Srinagar colony park, questions the very purpose of construction.

Locals have expressed anguish saying that like many public toilets constructed across the city, the inauguration of even this facility has been pending. According to residents, the initiative of Telangana government to construct enough public toilets to make the city open defecation-free and maintain cleanliness becomes meaningless because of the delay in opening the facility.

Some of them also termed the entire effort to draw publicity as a 'flop show' given the prolonged time between completion and inauguration of the facility. "I wonder if these new toilets are for public use forever or is it also like a flop scheme like water ATMs, Mana Kuragayalu, model markets and others," questions a denizen P Suresh while walking past the public toilet which came up at Sri Nagar Colony and remained shut for several months.

Slamming the entire process of official inauguration causing delay in the implementation of ideas and schemes promised by the government, K Vaishnavi from Rahamathnagar questioned that why people should wait for politicians to use government services and isn't it too delayed?

"Do we really need to wait for politicians to get public toilets and where are our so-called politicians busy? If they work for people, they must have given time for inauguration instead of giving time for campaigning," she added.

Although Hyderabad has been declared open-defecation free city, inaccessibility to these toilets often forces many people to relieve themselves in open spaces. Toilets constructed in many public places under the Swachh Bharat scheme, remain out of bounds to the public, leaving them understandably frustrated.