04 March,2014 07:30 AM IST | | Sujit Mahamulkar
Association of retailers at Dadar market issued a legal notice to the BMC commissioner, asking him to fix the broken-down public toilet in a month
Three months after mid-day reported how a public toilet at the Dadar Market had become a seat of contest for local politicians, it now seems to be causing the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief considerable incommode.
Repair work on the semi-demolished toilet in Dadar (W) market has been sporadic, causing a spot of bother for shopkeepers and others
Municipal Commissioner Sitaram Kunte, as chief of the civic administrative wing, received a legal notice regarding the toilet built by the BMC, which has not been functioning for the last nine months.
mid-day's earlier report on November 28. File pic
A retailers' association at the market, Swatantryaveer Savarkar Mandai Punarvikas Samiti (SSMPS), led by Sudarshan Sadanand Mandlik, issued the notice, asking the civic chief to act on the issue within 30 days.
"If the municipal commissioner does not take cognisance of the issue, we will file a writ petition against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)," said Mandlik.
Advocate Anand Upadhyay, who sent the notice on behalf of SSMPS, said that the municipal commissioner should direct the relevant department to take immediate steps to reconstruct the toilet in a month.
"The civic chief should invite bids for operating the toilet or invite tenders for its reconstruction and operation on pay-and-use basis within a limited time frame, and also direct action against the officer bearers of the mandal and the market department for omission of duty," Upadhyay has said in the notice.
The BMC constructed the toilet in Dadar's Swatantryaveer Savarkar Market and handed it over to an organisation for maintenance, by charging a nominal fee from users. In June 2013, when the G-North ward officials inspected the toilet, they found it in a rundown state and sent a report to the BMC's market department detailing the disintegration.
But the department has not yet taken any concrete action. Currently, the toilet is half-demolished and unusable. Assistant Commisisoner of the market department, Rajesh katkar, said they would hold a meeting on the issue today.
