Mumbai: Aaditya Thackeray, Akshay Kumar open bio-toilets at Juhu beach

Akshay Kumar and Aaditya Thackeray at an event. File photo

After Akhay Kumar's wife Twinkle Khanna Tweeted about open defecation, along with a picture of a man defecating on Juhu beach, the National Award winning actor has now taken a step forward to help slum dwellers and visitors to the beach by installing a row of bio toilets.

The Tweet, that quickly went viral, and received some flack with people saying that Twinkle Khanna was being insensitive to the slum-dwellers' plight. Twinkle Khanna reacted by pointing out that there was a public toilet just a few minutes away from the spot that she photographed the man.

Eight months after Twinkle's Tweet, Akshay Kumar teamed up with Yuva Sena Chief Aaditya Thackeray to get the toilets installed at the beach, and spent Rs 10 lakhs on the project.

The toilets have six seats with three for men and three for women. What's more the toilets have a bio-digester which will prevent the familiar stink from pervading the air. The toilets are meant to help not only visitors to the beach but also slum dwellers from nearby areas.

Last year the BMC launched a campaign to eradicate open defecation and a few months later the Quality Council of India had declared Mumbai ‘open defecation free'. However it seems the tag is quite misplaced.

As per the Muncipal Corporation there are 117 open defecation spots in Mumbai and a large number of these regions are plots of land owned by government departments and agencies. Also, as per the Swacch Bharat Mission guidelines, there should be a toilet for every 30 users. Therefore, Mumbai needs over 1 lakh toilet seats to cater to just 63 per cent of its population.

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