This has been stated by none other than the city Mayor, who said that the former Commissioner got these certificates with the promise to start construction of Sulabh toilets from September 10, but even ten days later there is neither construction work that has begun, nor have the wards been provided with temporary mobile toilets. The capital needs, according to the Mayor, 300 toilets.
It is only after the then commissioner of the CCP was transferred and a new commissioner has taken charge that the Mayor makes this revelation or allegation. But, this raises an entire new line of questioning. How were the councillors coerced into giving these certificates? And, why did they agree to give them? It is strange that a government official was able to get the councillors of the city to agree to give certificates stating their wards were ODF when they were not,, and when the councillors also knew the wards were still not ODF. Does this mean that the councillors don’t have the best interests of their wards at heart?
If bureaucrats can force elected representatives to give certificates making claims that are not true, then there needs to be an investigation ordered into this episode. The Mayor has made a serious allegation, and the bureaucrat has to be given a chance to explain and defend himself.
But the city’s ODF travails don’t end with that. Just a day before this revelation, the High Court of Bombay at Goa has directed the government to set up mobile toilets at Dona Paula within two weeks. Dona Paula is a much-frequented tourist spot, as bus-loads of tourists descend there all through the day, and the place should have had toilet facilities long before this. It took a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by residents of the area alleging that repeated pleas to local authorities to create parking and toilet facilities at spacious land acquired in 1998 have not yielded results. That is 21 years since the local people have been seeking toilet and parking facilities, not for themselves but for the tourists, and the government has not been bothered to deliver.
In less than three weeks since Goa was declared open defecation free, the chinks are already showing proving beyond doubt that the State has not met the criteria to merit to be certified as ODF. When the declaration had been made, there were already questions raised on this, as till a few days earlier the State had been far from meeting the criteria to be declared ODF. It had needed the construction of thousands of toilets, and had attempted to make the mark by distributing temporary mobile toilets to village panchayats to be placed at certain locations, so as to meet the ODF deadline. This is now being exposed.
Goa’s struggle to meet the ODF deadline has been one of misses right from the beginning, when it was initiated. Today the State claims on paper that it is open defecation free, but on the ground the reality may be very different. What we have is the example of Panjim, but there is still little news coming in from all the other towns and the numerous villages. Again, the seriousness that should have been shown n attaining this status was never displayed. No, Goa is not yet ODF.
