Thane municipal officials step into sanitation workers’ shoes, clean community toilets

As part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the campaign was aimed at understanding the difficulties faced by sanitation workers.

Sanitation workers woke up to a pleasant surprise to see Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) officials cleaning community toilets in their areas on Monday.

Deputy municipal commissioner Manish Joshi cleans a toilet in Thane.

As part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the campaign was aimed at understanding the difficulties faced by sanitation workers.

Additional commissioner Sunil Unhale, deputy municipal commissioner Manish Joshi and assistant municipal commissioner Maruti Gaikwad were among the team officials who cleaned the toilets.

Joshi told Hindustan Times, “We cleaned 16 toilet seats at Khartan Road, while six seats were cleaned earlier at Babaji PatilWadi in Mumbra. TMC sanitation workers live in these areas. While they keep the toilets across the city clean, theirs are ignored. The aim was also to understand the difficulties faced by these workers.”

The corporation had earlier decided to clean iconic places across the city. Joshi said, “Most of us were thinking of cleaning Masunda Lake or similar places. Civic commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal suggested we clean community toilets instead. When these toilets are cleaned the open defecation across the city will be reduced.”