The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has launched an initiative to prevent people from urinating in the open in Lutyens’ Delhi, with both infrastructure improvements and punitive action being taken.
The Union Urban Development Ministry had recently declared the NDMC area “open defecation-free”. Now, the civic body is aiming to stop people from relieving themselves in the open completely.
Public conveniences
In a statement on Wednesday, the NDMC said it had made public conveniences available at every 50 to 200 metres to cater to visitors to busy commercial centres like Connaught Place in the area. As per the civic body, an average of 15 lakh people visit Connaught Place and other areas of Lutyens’ Delhi every day. Apart from building public toilets, the NDMC is trying to improve other services too.
App to locate toilet
For instance, mobile application ‘NDMC 311’ can be used to locate the nearest public toilet. To discourage people from urinating in the open, the NDMC is painting walls and putting up mobile toilets at spots where people relieve themselves in the open quite frequently.
Mascots
The civic body has also deployed mascots to keep an eye on such offenders. The mascots are supposed to blow a whistle as soon as they see someone relieving themselves in the open, leading to the offenders being fined. A metropolitan magistrate and two special municipal magistrates have been deployed for this.
The NDMC is also trying to improve overall sanitation in the area. So far in this financial year, inspectors of the Public Health and Enforcement Departments have issued 5,360 online challans through the app mChallan. These challans relate to a variety of offences, including selling unhygienic food to urinating and defecating in the open.
Sanitary habits
Also, to spread awareness about sanitary habits, the NDMC has selected 500 people as ambassadors to inspire and inform people about the need for cleanliness. A total of 150 of these ‘Swachhta Grahi’ are from residents’ welfare associations, 110 are from market/trader associations, 125 are school students and 115 are residents of JJ clusters.
