Harshraj Singh Ludhiana, April 26 Women staff members and visitors at the MC headquarters are a harried lot. Reason: There is only one toilet for them at the MC’s Zone-A (headquarters) office building near Mata Rani Chowk, while there are three toilets for the males at different floors. A large number of women, including employees and visitors, visit the office on a daily basis. Sometimes, they are forced to wait and stand in a queue for their turn to use the toilet. Several women employees working on upper floors face a lot of inconvenience in routine, as they have to go downstairs to use the toilet, which is located on the ground floor. Besides, some women are forced to use toilets in the room of senior officials in an emergency. Those suffering from diabetes need to use the toilet multiple times. Even male employees want that toilets should be made available for women at every floor. An employee said: “There are around 150-200 women working at the MC headquarters, but there is only one toilet available for us. Besides, women visitors, who keep asking about the location of the female toilet, also suffer as no separate toilet is available for them.” “I work at the third floor of the building. When I went to the toilet, two women were already waiting for their turn. The MC authorities should take steps for providing female toilets at every floor,” she said. A group of women employees said toilets for males were available on the first, second and third floor of the building. “However, women working at the basement, ground floor, first floor, second floor and third floor use only one toilet. The authorities should ensure availability of female toilets at every floor, so that they don’t suffer,” said one of them. Ashwani Sahota, chairman of Municipal Employees’ Sangarsh Committee, said: “Female staff members face inconvenience as there is only one toilet for them. We have brought the matter to the notice of the authorities concerned. More toilets should be set up for female staff at the MC headquarters.” MC’s Health Department officials claimed that the operations and maintenance (O&M) wing was supposed to set up more toilets. However, the O&M wing officials said the B&R Department is the wing concerned. MC’s Additional Commissioner Sanyam Aggarwal was not available for comment.

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