For a city with an estimated 18.5 lakh population, pubic conveniences are few and far between.
For anyone visiting the city or coming to the central parts on some work or the other, lack of public toilets is a big problem. The less said about the plight of women the better.
Pubic urination is common whether it is near the RTC Complex, the Railway Station or other parts of the city. Only recently a few public toilets have been constructed, including at Diamond Park and on the Beach Road. For a city that has taken up a number of mega projects under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission constructing toilets should have come as first priority. But that is not to be.
According to official statistics, the corporation has a total of 189 public toilets with 32 and 61 respectively in the second and third zones that mostly constitute the central and commercial parts of the city. Zone I (4 toilets), Zone V (26) and VI (8) comprising the Madhurawada, Gajuwaka and Pendurti areas that have been merged in the corporation forming GVMC together account for 38.
According to Chief Medical Officer (Health) P.V. Ramana Murthy, the number includes the public lavatories constructed in slums.
That hardly leaves any for use by people on the move in the city and justifies the general impression about lack of public toilets.
Now the municipal corporation proposes to construct 1,230 public toilets and the proposals are to be approved by the Municipal Administration and Urban Development department.
Until they materialise in the core areas of the city, men easing in public will continue.
