The Hindu 20.01.2010
Delhi Govt. told to make plan for night shelters
Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Delhi Government to coordinate with the concerned public organisations in the Capital for providing night shelters to the homeless and to prepare an action plan for finding a permanent solution to the problem.
A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice A. P. Shah and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw asked the Delhi Chief Secretary to convene a meeting of officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, New Delhi Municipal Council, Delhi Cantonment Board and the Delhi Development Authority on Wednesday to discuss and draw up an action plan for a long-term as well as a short-term solution for the paucity of night shelters for the homeless.The Bench asked the Chief Secretary to submit the action plan to it on Friday. Meanwhile, the MCD informed the Court that it had identified a vacant building at Motia Khan in Central Delhi for lodging homeless persons there during winter.
The building would be provided power and water connections and repaired before shifting people there.
Counsel for the Delhi Government informed the Court that only 70 per cent of the total accommodation available at its 17 temporary shelters set up for the homeless was at present occupied.
The Bench was hearing a suo motu petition on the basis of media reports about the demolition of a night shelter on Pusa Road by the local body this past December 22.
The Bench had at the last hearing pulled up the local body for razing down the shelter without making alternative arrangements for the 250-odd homeless people staying there. Ten days after the demolition, a 35-year-old balloon vendor who had been driven out of the shelter had died due to severe cold.
The local body has since restored the shelter.
