Loo doesn't make one (loo)ser!

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Dec 10: ‘No (loo)sers, only winners’ can be the right philosophical message that gets across with the launch of any loo or toilet, as people call it. With such a mission, GMC is going to iugurate a public toilet at Basistha temple premises next week.

Basistha Temple is located at an inter-State border area that has an alluring scenic beauty of its won. The babbling Basistha stream, some small water falls in the vicinity and spots for trekking do allure visitors, besides painters to work with the brush for, what they say, they meet their deserted muses there. Trekking upstream the rivulet looks something like to be in an uncharted territory where one meets three hilly streams babbling down from Meghalaya – Sandhya, Lalita and Kanta. These three rivulets, christened as hilly lasses, confluence with the Basistha that skes through Guwahati before meeting the Brahmaputra. The glaring contrast is – the three hilly streams carry water looking like distilled water that turns turbid as soon as meeting the water of the Basistha, especially in its course downstream before meeting the Brahmaputra – as though the three virgin Meghalaya lasses have lost their sanctity downstream in Assam.

What leads to such a contrast? The reasons are not far to seek. They are glaringly visible in Basistha Temple complex itself, let alone rest of Guwahati. The temple has no toilet facilities meant for visitors. This is one of the reasons behind lack of increased tourist flow to the tourist spot. Other infrastructure of the temple premises is no better either. Poor infrastructure always adds to pollution, be it of air or water. The Basistha river is the victim of pollution.

Better late than never! The Sentinel did report earlier on the lack of facilities like toilet and drinking water in the pilgrim centre. Of late GMC has already erected a toilet in the temple premises and it is set to be iugurated next week. However, just one toilet is not enough for the rush of visitors to answer their ture’s call.

The temple has other problems as well. A large number of shops have sprung up outside the temple premises, including forest areas. Such people eke out their living by vending at the spot. In the event of any eviction drive carried against them, they will be left without any means to keep their ovens burning. The administrative heads in the city should make provisions that may help keep the temple premises clean, alluring to visitors.