PUBLIC TOILET AT SECTOR 6 DWARKA- AN UNFULFILLED DREAM OF DWARKAITES
New Delhi : Sector 6 Market of Dwarka is the premier market place of Sub-City, a dream project of DDA, visualized two decades back. The four storey market is frequented by a minimum of fifteen thousand visitors on week days and the figure is doubled on weekends. 
Besides market place, there are more than 500 offices functioning from third and fourth floors of this L shaped market. Another 500 unauthorised street vendors operate with the connivance of local bodies. You name any product and you get it here. Public has the convenience of buying anything suited to their purse but do not have public conveniences. A glaring omission. A neglect. A public place but sans a Public Toilet.
Anil Parashar, a human rights defender took up the cause of public conveniences at the market place four years back and filed a complaint with National Human Rights Commission. He complained that despite allotment of land and budget for public toilet under Swatch Bharat Abhiyan, no toilet was constructed in Sector 6 market by DDA and SDMC in collusion with local shopkeepers. He emphasized that senior citizens, women and children were silent sufferers. Men folks were seen urinating against the market walls. 
NHRC took cognizance of Parashar’s complaint on 5th January,, 2017 and called for reports from DDA and SDMC within four weeks. Officials of these authorities were summoned due to non-receipt of reply within the stipulated period. 
The matter was dragged for two years. Thereafter, SDMC informed NHRC that construction of public toilet was initiated in 2016, land marked for the purpose was handed over to the contractor but the shopkeepers took stay from the court. 
Ultimately court dismissed shopkeepers plea in 2018. NHRC again summoned SDMC to resume work. In 2019 SDMC assured completion of work in another 4 weeks. They again failed. In 2020 SDMC informed NHRC of obtaining revised estimates but failed to submit any report till 2021. The latest position is that NHRC by their order dated 29th January, 2021 has granted another four weeks time to SDMC to submit status report failing which coercive process shall be initiated.
Dates may come and go. SDMC known for its snail’s pace of working might again fail. Ground reality is denial of public toilet for years. Millions of toilets are claimed to have been built for public across India under Swatch Bharat Mission but the “mission Sector 6 toilet” remains the victim of local shopkeepers duly added by the apathy of local bodies. Truly said, ground realities are always different from what is exhibited on paper for public.
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