Chennai, March 21 (BPNS)

Students of Government Arts College at Kurumbalur and Veppanthattai in Perambalur district of Tamil Nadu have said that most of the male students of the college resort to open defecation owing to unhygienic toilets.

There are around 2500 students pursuing their studies at Kurumbalur college while 1500 students are studying at Veppanthattai college. Students also complain that drinking water facility is also lacking in these colleges.

Sivaprasad, a third-year student of BA functional English while speaking to BPNS said, “There are 2500 students in Kurumbalur Government college and we don’t have proper toilets. Both the gents’ and ladies’ toilets are unclean and totally unhygienic. Boys are now resorting to open defecation while girls have to use these unclean toilets. We have made several representations but nothing has happened.”

It may be noted that the state government and the Central government are in a campaign against Open defecation and are trying for an open defecation-free society. However, with students of even a government college forced to do open defecation, the open defecation free campaign of the state government is derailed.

R. Ramakrishnan, district secretary of the Students Federation of India (SFI) told media persons that the male students of the college are forced to open defecation due to unhygienic toilets and girl students are forced to use these very toilets that are equally unclean.

He said that the toilets are also poorly maintained and that almost all the toilets in the college are unclean and unhygienic. The student leader said that even after several representations were submitted to the district authorities, nothing has happened.

The SFI district secretary also warned that the student community will be forced into student agitations if the issue is not resolved.

District administration officials said that they have already received the petition from the students and would solve the issue as early as possible.