It is laughable that BMC continues to claim that it will build toilets and make Mumbai free of open defecation by 2019, especially after mid-day highlighted how the civic body had kept a huge toilet block in Mahim locked for 12 years, leaving people with no option but to relieve themselves in the open.

The toilet block, with 46 loos, was the only one located near the popular Maharashtra Nature Park, and as such, could have served the needs of local residents and visitors to the park, which has no toilets inside. According to the BMC, however, they could not open the toilet block because of a faulty drainage system. One is simply astonished that it can take more than a decade for somebody to find the will to fix a mere drainage problem. We are quite certain that BMC would have maintained the status quo if the issue had not been brought to light via this paper’s front-page report.