North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) effort to work on a public-private-partnership mode in sanitation work by taking up maintenance of public toilets seems to have failed as “no response” is received.
A senior corporation official said “We floated tenders for corporate firms to become partners for the maintenance of public toilets few months ago, but sadly not a single corporate entity has shown interest in maintaining the public toilets,” he said.
The official lamented that many of these firms want to build toilets but not ready to maintain them. “We thought, it would be a win-win situation if they could help in upkeep of public conveniences through their CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities,” he said.
Many tourist sites, including the famous Chandni Chowk in the historic Shahjehanabad area in Old Delhi fall under the jurisdiction of the NMC. Incidentally, the BJP-led civic body declared that from December 31, all its 104 wards have become open defecation- free (ODF).
Meanwhile, North Delhi Mayor Preety Agarwal on Saturday said that she is hopeful of a good performance in Swachh Survekshan 2018 with the joint efforts of all stakeholders. “All the officials and employees of the Corporation are putting their best foot forward to make the area cleaner and more beautiful,” she said. Mayor expressed confidence that north Delhi will get improved ranking in swachh survekshan 2018.
In the Swachh Bharat reckoning of 434 cities for 2016-17, areas falling under the three municipal corporations were at a low, the EDMC (196), SDMC (202) and NDMC (279).