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.