Akshay Kumar, Aaditya Thackeray sponsor mobile toilet near Juhu Beach
The mobile toilet was sponsored by Akshay Kumar and Aaditya Thackeray
Actor Akshay Kumar, along with Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray, sponsored a mobile toilet near Mumbai’s Juhu beach, months after his wife tweeted a picture of a man defecating at another sea-shore.
The actor sent an application to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) last week offering to set up the toilet by bearing all its expenses, assistant municipal commissioner of K-ward, Prashant Gaikwad, said.
“We welcomed his initiative and installed the toilet near the Juhu beach four days ago. The actor bore all the expenses, Rs 10 lakh, for setting up the portable toilet,” he told PTI.
“The mobile toilet can be used free of cost. If anyone comes forward to maintain it, then the facility can be provided on a pay-and-use basis,” he said.
The toilet has six seats, three each for men and women, with an additional row of urinals.
Tweeps, @akshaykumar ji & I have made a small contribution to our dear city. We chose to add privately to the efforts of the BMC by making a public toilet in Juhu, handed it over to the BMC now. Small contribution but just the beginning! (1/2) pic.twitter.com/WYuEneAJRu
— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) April 3, 2018
In August last year, Kumar’s wife Twinkle Khanna had taken to Twitter to raise the issue of open defecation near the Versova beach in suburban Andheri.
“Good morning and I guess here is the first scene of Toilet Ek Prem Katha part 2,” she had tweeted along with a picture of a man defecating on the Versova beach.
She had voiced her annoyance after spotting a man defecating in the open while she was out on a morning walk on the beach.
Khanna’s post had come a month after the city was declared open defecation free by the Quality Council of India.
Notably, during the same period, Kumar had produced the film “Toilet: Ek Prem Katha”, starring himself and Bhumi Pednekar, which was inspired by the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The mobile toilet was installed near Juhu beach
The positioning of the mobile toilet near the Juhu beach, however, did not go well with some city residents. Among them was a local resident, Sameera, who expressed her reservations on the toilet’s location.
“The toilet is wrongly placed. Slum dwellers defecated 1 km (towards the end) Versova/Juhu beach 2 public toilets already exist within 500 metres from the new one. New toilets r needed towards the end stretch of both beaches,” she posted on Twitter.
While welcoming the move, the civic body also said that three or four more such toilers were required to make the beaches defecation free.
Overall, the city needs an additional 60,000 toilet seats per the Swachh Bharat Mission guidelines.
