Mumbai: He came, he saw, he cleaned. But not the toilets!
Minister of state for Railways Manoj Sinha inspected the cleanliness drive at CST on Gandhi Jayanti as part of the PM’s Swachata Abhiyan and even swept the footpath outside the world heritage site, but skipped the hell hole at the station — the toilets.
The toilets at CST stink and only the very desperate use them. The women’s toilets are slushy and the wash basins are dirty. The only thing that the railways did on Thursday was to liberally sprinkle bleaching powder in the toilet.
Sinha visited CST, the CR headquarters, in the afternoon. After paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi, he inspected platform no 1 and even stepped out on the footpath with a broom. In less than a minute, it was over. The TV cameras had got their footage.
He could have visited the toilets which are in the concourse itself but he did not.
Asked by this correspondent as to why he did not visit the toilets when his Prime Minister had been talking about them, Sinha said, “I have visited four toilets at the other railway stations.’’ Pressed on why he did not visit the CST toilets, he said, “Now that the point has been raised, I will visit it.’’ However, no one saw him do that and there were no reports about it as well.
Sunil Kumar Sood, General Manager of CR, said he had visited the toilets in the morning and the only reason that the minister could not have a good look was that there was too much of a crowd.
“Inspectors monitor the cleanliness drive at each station and they would have inspected the toilets as well,” Sood added. Railway officials, however, say in private that their job is to run trains not to maintain toilets.
Asked about the condition of the toilets he had visited, Sinha said, “When I visited them today they were fine.”
Nandita Shah, co-director of the voluntary organisation, ‘Akshara Foundation’, which works for gender justice and is also a part of the ‘Right to Pee’ campaign, said, ” It is very important to visit the toilets on a day when such a big drive has been undertaken to maintain hygiene at the stations. If a dignitary visits a station, the least he/she can do is visit the toilets considering the fact that the PM has mentioned it on several occasions. Their visit would only bring more attention to the cause and address the problems faced by the commuters, especially the women, in a better way.”
