Title - SC notice to Centre, DMRC on plea for water, toilet facilities

The Union and the city Governments along with the Delhi Railway Metro Rail Corporation have been asked by the Supreme Court to respond to a plea for provision of drinking water and toilet facilities at metro stations.A bench of justices Deepak Verma and Ibrahim Kalifullah issued notices to the respondent on a petition by one Satish Kumar Sharma, an advocate through his counsel Atulesh Kumar against a Delhi High Court order which had dismissed the plea.While issuing the notices recently, the apex court said the matter be tagged with another petition filed by an NGO which too has complained of a lack of various basic amenities in the metro service, a popular mode of transport in the NCR region.The petitioner submitted that since water and toilets are available at all airports and railway stations, those travelling by metro cannot be deprived of similar facilities and claimed that lack of such utilities put the commuters to various health risks.According to the petition, there has been a tremendous development on the metro connectivity lines so much so that a commuter today travels 40 to 60 km every day over several hours without having the benefit of any water or toilet facilities at platforms.It was pointed out that though DMRC had provided various other facilities such as escalators and parking lots, it has made no provision for basic water and toilet facilities.

“Delhi Metro has not provided the most important facilities of drinking water and toilets on metro stations platforms and it is causing a lot of inconvenience to the public at large, particularly the children, women, old and aged persons and the physically challenged commuters,” the petition said.