The South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s initiative to have restaurants and hotels open their toilets to the public started off with some confusion on Monday, with most people unaware of the scheme.
Civic body order
The SDMC had ordered all restaurants, cafés and hotels in South Delhi to allow women and children to use their toilets for free from May 1 in order to increase the number of public toilets available to visitors. But on day one of the implementation of the scheme, many restaurants as well as visitors were unaware of the SDMC’s decision.
Managers of three restaurants in Defence Colony market said they had received no information about the SDMC’s order. The manager of Sagar Ratna said the restaurant usually never denied anyone who wanted to use the toilet.
The civic body, on its part, admitted that there was need to create awareness about the move.
A public notice was issued on Monday informing people about the initiative.
Commissioner Puneet Kumar Goel said the civic body would launch a drive to make visitors to the markets aware of the initiative. Information display boards, eight to 10 in each market, would be put up and stickers distributed to restaurants. About 3,500 restaurants and hotels in south Delhi are covered under this initiative.
Access to clean public toilets is a concern all over Delhi, with facilities for men outnumbering those for women.
L-G instructions
The SDMC had in February decided to order all restaurants and hotels with health trade licences to open their toilets to the public following instructions by Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal.
If the SDMC is able to implement the scheme successfully, the North and East Delhi civic bodies may be asked to follow suit, said sources.
The South civic body, which has 597 urinal blocks and 485 public toilet complexes, would continue to increase the number of toilets. The Commissioner said about 300 new toilet complexes would be built by the SDMC.
