At a time when the Tiruchi City Corporation is making all out efforts to eradicate open defecation, open space at Melachinthamani near the Anna Statue is widely used as an open toilet.
The main road adjacent to the site is one of the busiest roads in the city. In addition to a bus stop, it is a distribution point for milk vendors of the city. A number of roadside eateries, shopping complexes and two-wheeler workshops make the area extremely busy since dawn to dusk. But there is no public toilet in the area to cater to the need of huge floating population forcing them to look for isolated places to ease themselves. The search invariably leads them to the open site, which is under dispute between two private parties. Apart from passengers waiting at the bus stop, autorickshaw drivers, rickshaw pullers and others use the site for urination causing severe stench in the locality. It is common to see at least two to three persons urinating at any given point of time.
Besides, the open site is being used as a dumping yard by the local residents to dump garbage and left-over from roadside eateries, restaurants, marriage halls and others. Similarly, debris collected from construction sites have been dumped at the open site making it as ugly.
“The indiscriminate open defecation makes life difficult for us. Though we keep advising against urination at the site, no one listens. The Corporation officials pay no attention to solve the issue,” said a local shopkeeper.
Stating that the place near to the Anna statue was a popular site for political parties to stage agitations, he said that the participants also used the site for urination.
S. Sahadev Pandian, 9 ward councillor, said that he had taken up the issue with the officials on several occasions. The area was being cleaned at least once in 10 days. There were limitations in solving the issue as the site was owned by a private party. Constructing a compound wall along the site would solve the issue temporarily. However, citing a case pending before a court, the landholder had refused to construct compound wall. He would once again stress the need for constructing a sanitary complex or public toilet in the nearby locality.
