The Hindu               20.01.2014

City to get more night shelters soon

Seeking to set up more night shelters in the city, the GHMC on Saturday night carried out a preliminary survey to identify locations where the homeless sleep.

A full-fledged identification process would be taken up at midnight on Monday.

The GHMC presently has a total of 14 night shelters spread across different circles of the city, with a total capacity of 387.

The civic body plans to immediately start two more shelters. Realising the need for more such facilities, it had decided to take up a survey of different points where the homeless usually gather around to sleep in the nights.

“As of now, we propose to set up two shelters – below the Begumpet flyover and one near the Basavatarakam Cancer Hospital,” an official said.

“The visit [on Saturday] was a bit early in the night. We realised not many had returned to the usual haunts frequented by the homeless. Thus on Monday, our teams will start late and carry out the assessment beyond midnight,” an official said.

Review meet

At a recent review meeting, GHMC Commissioner Somesh Kumar asked the Urban Community Development (UCD) wing to form teams for the survey of places in the city where homeless sleep and also wanted them to identify open spaces or buildings which could be converted into night shelters.