Ranchi: In capital town Ranchi every unoccupied place is a lavatory,
or so people think. Not only public places are used to ease even private properties
are not spared. On Thursday evening this correspondent caught a man peeing at
the backyard wall of Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni palatial house.
“Now newspapers have stooped to this level (reporting
peeing activities)?” the middle-aged man quipped as if proud to have peed on
Dhoni’s house. He refused to disclose his name. Dhoni’s house is high-walled.
As there is no guard at the back door no one forbade him.
A sanitation inspector with Ranchi Municipal
Corporation (RMC) said comic is the sense of sanitation in locals here.
“Certain folk, especially those coming from rural
areas, never use urinals. They would urinate beside the urinals but not into
it,” said the inspector.
He also said, “The other sort of folk not only urinate
into the urinals they also shit. I receive daily complaints from my sweepers.”
Gopalji Tiwary, additional municipal commission RMC,
said, “laws have been enacted to punish those indulging in the dirty act at
public places. Jharkhand Municipality Act 2011 authorizes its civic officials,
including RMC to charge no less than Rs 500 from people found doing the “dirty
activity” in public places. No one has however been charged so far.
Gopalji Tiwary, said, “NO has been charged for peeing
in public. Actually it is difficult to catch such people.”
There are only 46 public toilets and 13 urinals in
town where over 11 lakh people reside. Ranchi
is spread over more than 175 square kilometer. In such a large place 55-odd
toilets are lost and people find it difficult to locate them and urinate
wherever they want to.
Men may not mind, but the dirty act has girls hang
their heads in shame at city St Xavier College. Over 10,000 girls pass by a
urinal near Sadar hospital adjacent to the prestigious college.
“It is a surprise how people manage to do it in an
open place,” said Premlata Rani, of St Xavier College. Another girl Ankita
Kujur had a suggestion, “Jhakrhand Mukti Sangh should throw acid on these
people.” JMS had recently threatened to throw acid on jeans-clad girls in Ranchi.
Similar is the situation at Jakir
Hussain Park
and St John School where urinals are situated. “We
throw little stones at those indulging in the dirty act outside the urinal,”
said Spardha Singh, a class X student.
Swati Singh, a doctor, said almost 90% men don’t have
any regard for women let alone for people of their own sex. “Until and unless
there would be strict punishment, it will continue,” she added.
Amool Ranjan, director Ranchi Institutte of Neuro
Physiatrist and Allied Sciences (RINPAS) said, “It has become a habit of these
people. It is because there is a severe lack of toilets in the city. People
always do it at roadside and have no qualms about it.”
However, those urinating in public places are not
exclusively at fault. “Actually no urinal or toilet in Ranchi is clean. It is deathlike to spend
even five minutes into them,” said Srikant Chaubey, an employee at Nepal house,
the state’s secretariat.
On contract with the Jharkhand government, toilets are
maintained in the state by Sulabh International, a sanitation agency. The
toilets were constructed with funds from the state government and handed over
to the agency which charges Rs 2 for each use.
alokknmishra@gmail.com
