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If you get a natural call while moving around the city you need not ask anyone about where the nearest toilet is. Just push a button on your internet-enabled mobile phone and feed your whereabouts. You would be instantly guided about where to go to relieve yourself. This is what is to start either by the end of September or the first week of October. Under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a Government of India’s app is going to introduce this map on the pattern of the map detailing the traffic jam. Currently, the people are getting picture of the traffic snarl through the google map. Similarly, they would get information about the location of the public toilets on the google map. While talking to Dr Raghav Langer, director, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Uttarakhand chapter, said that they are now engaged in geo- tagging of toilets. “It would help us in introducing the public toilet location map as all the information is being sent to the Union government server through geo-tagging,” he added.
Observers hail the move, saying that once introduced, it would help roads and the like be clean, something that would amount to another step forward towards fulfilment of the goal set under Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA). It is learnt that Quality Council of India, which is a nodal agency under the Government of India, has collaborated with Google to geo-tag public loos at various petrol pumps, malls, railway and bus stations. In the first phase, around 85 cities in the country, including Dehradun, have been selected.
Dr Langer further said that we have been presently tagging the newly constructed toilets under SBM. “So far we have connected 78 percent of the toilets with geo-tagging. For this, what you need is a smart phone and user Id. You will have to give your IMEI to create user Id by logging on website on which you have to put all the details. It would be followed by the generation of Gram Panchayat (GP). Subsequently, you would have to download SBM app from google play store and submit all the details, including user Id and password. Once you register on the app you would receive all the information about the facilities promptly. Thereafter, as you visit your allotted gram panchayat and click the picture of the toilet it would automatically go to the Union government server through geo- tagging,” he added.
The Quality Council has requested Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) officials to submit information of the location of public toilets in the capital city. Once the data is received these public restrooms would be accessed by the Quality Council officials. These public facilities are likely to be geo-tagged by the end of October with Google Toilet Locator service and things would be rolled out for the users in the following month. The users can also rate and review the restrooms on the basis of their experiences regarding cleanliness. “Dehradun being bereft of the sufficient number of the public toilets in tune with its expansion, the move would help the people a great deal. This would also help the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-envisaged dream of providing toilet to one and all in the country find fulfilment,” an observer said.
