Ranchi/Jamshedpur: If you see red while using a filthy public toilet, simply press red.

Soon, residents and even visitors to Ranchi and Jamshedpur would be able to instantly rate public toilets via tablet-like feedback devices with touchscreen that would be mounted near the entrance. If a user is happy, he can press the green button on the screen, if not, he will press red. Feedback from every loo will go to a central server in Ranchi's state urban development agency office (Suda) at Project Building for follow-up.

Urban development department principal secretary Arun Kumar Singh said instant public feedback devices would begin in Jharkhand with Ranchi and Jamshedpur. "Gradually, public loos in other cities of the state will have these instant feedback devices," he said.

Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) city manager Sandeep Kumar said installation of instant public feedback devices in public toilets has already begun this week.

In a day or two, Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) - the civic body looking after non-Tata Steel command areas - will install the devices at public restrooms in many parts of the city. JNAC will also ask Jusco (civic utility wing of Tata Steel that looks after urban upkeep in company areas) to install its own mechanisms at the earliest.

Ranchi has 35 public and 60 community toilets. Jamshedpur's JNAC area has 27 public toilets and 44 community toilets.

City manager and nodal officer of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in JNAC, Shakil Anwar Mehdi said they got 18 instant feedback devices at JNAC office in Sakchi on Tuesday and more would arrive. "Suda procured them from Mumbai-based Gaia Smart Cities Solutions," Mehdi said.

Using them would be simple, Mehdi said. The screen will have one question in Hindi and English - are you satisfied with sanitation at the toilet? A user will press the green or red button depending on his experience.

He explained this feedback would reach Ranchi's central server. "Totalling all user responses, we will know the status of that specific toilet. If feedback is bad, we will initiate steps not only to clean the toilet but act against the agency tasked with keeping it clean," he said.

RMC city manager Kumar and JNAC's Mehdi said feedback devices would be installed at loos by this year-end before the Swachh Survekshan survey in January.

Additional reporting by A.S.R.P. Mukesh in Ranchi.