Aurangabad: Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), which had promised to open public toilets for women on International Day Women’s Day which falls on March 8, has not yet got the toilets ready. Sites had been selected for toilet construction at Aurangapura, Paithan Gate, Botanical Garden and Seven Hills. Work, however, has still to begin. Women shoppers, businesswomen and tourists must just grin and bear the inconvenience.Women corporators Kirti Shinde, Smita Ghogre, Seema Kharat, Samina Shaikh and others have been repeatedly taking up the issue of lack of public toilets for women at busy market places in general body meetings of the AMC. The civic body had identified sites in different areas where toilets could be built. However, following the land selection, building has not occurred.Whenever the issue is taken up, office bearers and administrative officers begin the blame-game, passing the buck from one to another. Kirti Shinde said a provision had been made in the budget, but officers had deferred work.“In every general body meeting, we ask the administration when the toilets will be ready. They give us one reason or another for the delay,” Shinde said.AMC executive engineer Afsar Siddiqui said the work of building toilets at Aurangabad was on in full swing, and the toilets would be inaugurated before Ganesh Chaturthi. Work of building the toilet at Botanical Garden in N-8 Cidco is halted, as bills have not been paid in the last eight months. “We have hired an NGO to undertake the construction. The work will be completed within one and half months of release of payment,” Siddiqui said.Talking about the toilet proposed at Bhadkal Gate, he said locals were resisting the construction of a toilet at the site. He said it would be built at the Fire Brigade office at Seven Hills. The work of toilet proposed at Paithan Gate could not be started after locals lodged a complaint with police. The Mumbai NGO which was working on the toilet had to abandon the project. “We have recalled tenders for Paithan Gate and Seven Hills and the applications have also been received,” the officer said.

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