the goan I network
MARGAO
Can a Municipal body claim Open Defecation Free (ODF) status when the bazaar area of the town does not play host to a common sanitation facility? And, when thousands of industrial workers are putting up in rented premises across the town where sanitation is still a far cry?
These and other questions may certainly come to haunt the Cuncolim Municipal Council which had recently claimed that it has attained the Open Defecation Free (ODF) status.
Consider this. The market area of the town, in and around the Municipal hall to the bus stand and towards CMC building, does not have a single public toilet. Any citizen, from the town or outside, who wants to relive himself, either had the option to use the market toilets or the sanitation amenities at the KTC bus stand. Sadly, there are no sign boards around the bazaar area showing the direction of the toilets in the market complex or the bus stand.
Inquiries by The Goan have only revealed that the Cuncolim Municipality has now proposed to build a sulabh public toilet in the bazaar area for the benefit of the people. It still isn’t clear when the facility will take shape as the tendering process has not yet been set in motion till date.
The biggest issue threatening to derail the Open Defecation Free (ODF) is the presence of thousands of migrants in the town, putting up in rented premises, in areas close to the Cuncolim Industrial Estate. That early morning joggers had been complaining of open defecation at several places, particularly on the banks of rivulets and streams only goes to show that the ground reality is not that rosy as is made out to be by the civic body.
That’s not all. Locals claim that the commissioning of the container depot by the Konkan Railway at its railway station at Balli has thrown up the question of sanitation facilities for the drivers and cleaners of the trucks, parked on the shoulders of the National Highway 66 passing through Cuncolim. Questions are being raised whether these truck drivers and cleaners use the sanitation amenities at the adjoining fuel pump, or answer nature’s call at the nearby stream running alongside the highway.
The Cuncolim Civic & Consumer Forum (CCCF) has contended that declaration of the Municipal Wards as Open Defecation Free (ODF) needs to be made keeping in mind the various laws & notification mentioned above and those others presently enforced in the State of Goa which need to be taken into consideration.
Submitting a detail to the civic body, giving its feedback and observations in response to the CMC Public Notice, Forum Secretary Lorna Fernandes said a public toilet facility may be required in the bazaar area to meet the requirements of visitors to the town. On the large number of migrant labourers employed in the Cuncolim Industrial Estate, Lorna pointed out these migrant labourers are unable to access toilet facilities within the Industrial Estate as per their number and requirement. Moreover, many of these migrant labourers are living in rented accommodation provided by various households in the CMC jurisdiction which do not have toilet facilities for them’, she added.
Saying that the KTC is maintaining a bus-stand in the Cuncolim Municipal Council jurisdiction which caters to hundreds of commuters on a daily basis, the forum said the toilets provided in this bus stand are inadequate.
