Ggn residents face major challenges as HUDA denies land for public toilets

The scarcity of public toilets in the Millennium City continues to pose threats to many, especially to women.

Tasked with the responsibility of setting up public toilets, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) continues to face the challenge of acquiring land across different sectors.

In a recent move,s HUDA has denied land to MCG for setting up public toilets in some of its sectors on the request of Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) in these sectors.

According to RWA's, MCG had planned to build public toilets near green belt area and parks. But, this would make the surrounding areas dirtier owing to poor maintenance of toilets by the officials.

Certain prominent sectors in the city where the residents have protested against setting up of public toilets are Sector 15, Sector 8, Sector 5, Sector 46 and Sector 9.

Interestingly, MCG is in charge of maintenance of the sectors but it has to seek permission from HUDA, as the land belongs to the latter. With MCG not getting land in the densely populated areas of the city, it is building public toilets near the surrounding villages that are not been frequented by many.

Meanwhile, not only in the sectors but also in posh public areas like MG road and Golf Course road, lack of public toilets continues to be a major problem. While MCG officials have claimed that they are setting up the public toilets on a large scale, most of the residents remain unimpressed by the claims.

"There is no denying the fact that Gurugram is woefully short of toilets. Even in areas like MG road that is well known for its malls, offices and residential societies, there are certain areas at MG road where the stench caused due to lack of public toilets is completely unbearable.

Further, the levels of maintenance and cleanliness in most of the public toilets continue to be in an abysmal state," said a resident, Rahul Kapoor. He also stated that the problems of no public toilets are faced mostly by women.

"It's unfortunate that certain toilets that have built by residential and market societies in the city, no attention is paid towards building women toilets," added Kapoor.