People pray before God as per their beliefs at religious structures. It is an act of grave illegality to first construct place of worship encroaching upon garbage carrying wet nallah and then justifying donations receiving ATMs by mischievously playing politics over it. This is neither Astha nor wisdom. We must hang our heads in shame for indulging into such shameful acts by exploiting religion for our commercial ends, asserted Prof S.K Bhalla, a staunch but liberated Hindu.
JAMMU: Defeating the very objective of ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ of PM Narendra Modi, the Jammu Municipal Corporation has suddenly closed a Sulabh Toilet at Mini Market, Green Belt Park Gandhi Nagar leading to inconvenience for hundreds of its users and deep annoyance among residents of nearby posh locality.
Shutting down an extensively used toilet seems an act of haste taken without application of mind which has created unhygienic environment besides unpleasant scenario around our homes where at any given point of time, people are seen urinating in full view of the public, laments Ridhimi Sharma. This is disgusting state of affairs and unacceptable decision not expected from those who keep parroting PMs SBM on local media channels of Jammu, she added in anger.
Though the authorities in JMC are mum on the issue, it is learnt that the undesired decision in haste was taken on the instructions of Mayor Jammu, Rajinder Sharma after a deputation of unauthorized auto stand union apprised him about it.
Accusing the Mayor, Jammu for playing into the hands of a dozen auto rickshaws owners who are hell bent to exploit religious sentiments merely for justifying tin shed like structure raised overnight on encroached wet garbage nallah, the shopkeepers of the Mini market told JK Global News “This toilet was constructed by JMC 20 years ago and caters to the needs of hundreds of people on daily basis and we have not seen any mandir adjoining it”. We don’t need mandirs, masjids, etc on nallahs which are fit only for use as toilets, they added.
Raising question mark on tall claims of Mayor Rajinder about transforming the city of temples into abode of cleanliness, another resident of Green Belt Park namely Akhil Gupta said “If this is the plan of our Mayor to keep city neat and clean by closing public utility toilets at break neck speed then SBM of our PM is heading towards a disaster in our UT”.
This is a unique case, where the Mayor instead of initiating action against the unauthorized auto stand that has become a source of inconvenience for pedestrians besides jeopardizing motorists living in the area has shut a widely used public utility toilet for encouraging construction of a make shift Mandir on encroached nallah”.
Commenting on the issue, a shopkeeper of Green Belt Park avers “It is a common practice in Jammu to shield their illegal auto stands by initially creating a small open space with pictures of God and Goddesses and then encroach the adjoining space to protect their illegal auto stand. Later on, they start collecting donations by exploiting the sentiments of gullible people. Does the Mayor plan to close every authorized structure on the demands of such illegal auto stand walas ?”
Where is the sagacity of mind for closing an authorized public utility structure constructed by the civic body more than two decades ago for catering to whims of auto walas, said one passerby namely Guldev Singh.
Repeated efforts to seek Mayor’s view on a significant issue of health and hygiene failed as he neither preferred to respond to our calls nor bothered about our whatsapp messages.
Ashok Kumar, claiming to be President of auto union mini market Green belt park, Gandhi Nagar while justifying closure of public toilet said that toilet and Mandir cannot stand together. When further asked which among two was constructed first and why they prefer to remain silent for more then 2 decades, he instead of coming clean on the issue start unconvincing argumentation on the issue and evades reply.