The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sulabh intensifies `lobbying'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 09, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Sulabh intensifies `lobbying'

By Lalit K. Jha

NEW DELHI, AUG. 8. Sulabh International, the non-government organisation known for its eco-friendly and affordable community toilets, has resorted to canvassing among decision-makers in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi which is still "looking into'' the proposal of handing over all the public toilet blocks to the NGO for 30 years without any financial obligation.

For more than a fortnight now, senior officials of Sulabh International have been meeting top MCD leaders including the Mayor, A. R. Verma, the Standing Committee Chairman, Mukesh Goel; the Leader of the House, Satbir Singh; the Leader of Opposition, Subhash Arya; and the Standing Committee Deputy Chairman, Ashok Jain. The NGO is believed to have intensified its lobbying efforts as `the' proposal by the Municipal Commissioner, Rakesh Mehta, is being opposed by a large number of Councillors from both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The NGO has also written individual letters to all the 134 Councillors explaining its position and claiming that community toilet complexes (CTCs) maintained by it have received international recognition. The letter thus argued that there was no justifiable reason to oppose Sulabh in the Capital.

Terming the recent visit of senior Sulabh officials to his residence as an attempt by the NGO to influence senior MCD leaders, Mr. Arya observed: "This is backroom lobbying by Sulabh to influence the decision-making process in the civic body." Stating that the BJP had withdrawn more than 60 CTCs from the Sulabh when the party was in power, Mr. Arya alleged that the proposal was indeed a multi-crore scam.

The Congress Councillors too are not lagging behind. The senior party Councillor from East Delhi, Ajit Chaudhary, last week prepared a video film of all the CTCs maintained and operated by Sulabh in his ward. The film, which shows the sewage of CTCs openly, flowing into the park and backlanes, dead rats at the entrance of Sulabh toilets, broken gates and open theft of electricity from nearby poles would be shown to the Councillors and senior party leaders, Mr. Chaudhary said.

Referring to a CTC at Sunder Nagri H-Block, he alleged that even shops were being run inside toilet complexes. "It is so badly maintained that no one prefers to go in. A majority of toilet blocks are not functional for years together, and we are paying them Rs. 1,000 per seat per annum. Under such circumstances, this is nothing but misappropriation of public money and all this is being done in nexus of officials," he alleged.

Senior BJP Councillor, Vijender Kumar Gupta, who is a member of the sub-committee constituted by Mr. Goel to look into various issues of handing CTCs to Sulabh, alleged that Mr. Mehta for the first time probably has bypassed transparency on such a crucial issue. "We are not against giving all the toilet blocks to one particular agency. We want that there should be proper competition or issuing of global tenders in this process," he demanded. Mr. Gupta has submitted a list of 32 questions to Mr. Mehta raising various issues related to the proposed contract.

The Congress Councillor from Janak Puri, Sanjay Puri, asked: "How can we hand over all the toilet blocks to one NGO, whose track record with the MCD has been questionable?"

Meanwhile, in another related development, several Congress Councillors, mostly from East Delhi and Outer Delhi, have decided to oppose the attempt to hand over all CTCs to Sulabh. "The vary fact that the NGO representatives are meeting all of us seeking our support in itself indicates that there is something fishy," Mr. Chaudhary claimed.

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