The Times of India  15.12.2010

NEW DELHI: The state government authorities were caught unawares as the Delhi Development Authority brought down two fully-functional night shelters without notice at a vacant tract of land near the Kalkaji temple complex, where a large number of homeless had taken refuge from the cold weather.

One of the shelters demolished on Tuesday was put up as an alternative to the night shelter demolished at a site near Nehru Place on Friday night. There DDA had brought the structure down without notice. These demolitions point towards a systemic failure and lack of coordination between various agencies.

Near the Kalkaji Metro station lies a large tract of vacant DDA land. About five days back, NGO Sahyog Charitable Trust had set up a shelter here. The fully-functional shelter had started attracting the homeless over the weekend and the numbers were growing. Rajnish Vats from the Trust said the positive response had spurred them on to publish pamphlets to draw more people to the shelter. But the pamphlets were gathering dust on a table near the demolished night shelter on Tuesday as the homeless helplessly watched the structure getting demolished.

A frail old woman who had slept in the shelter on Monday night was taken aback by the demolition. She and many others will yet again be on the road braving the chill on Tuesday night. "Woh phir aayenge aur tambu lagayenge. Yeh galti se todh diya hai. (They will come back and put another shelter. I am sure this is a mistake),'' an aged man said as he watched the tents lying collapsed on one side.

Eyewitnesses pointed out that the DDA team had come without prior notice and brought the tents down asking the NGOs to remove the shelters. Palvinder Singh from NGO Prerna was disillusioned. "First a day's effort of erecting the shelter was in vain when it was brought down at Nehru Place on Friday. The shelter had been set up after informing the state authorities and later we were told to put up the shelter at a vacant spot near Kalkaji temple. When the shelter was set up the DDA never raised any objections but now all of sudden, they demolished the structure when homeless have started occupying it,'' Palvinder Singh added.

The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board claims to have acted later in the day pointing out to DDA that these night shelters were temporary and cannot be treated as encroachments. The Board has asked DDA to cooperate and senior officials claimed that DDA has assured that instructions will be issued to the ground staff. For the record, when the night shelter had been demolished at Nehru Place on Friday, chief secretary, Rakesh Mehta had said a similar thing the next day claiming that he was told by DUSIB that the matter had been sorted out with DDA.

The secretary's claims notwithstanding, DDA showed up on Tuesday again to demolish the shelters claiming that they had not been informed if the shelters were permitted. The shelters were brought down and yet again DUSIB and the district authorities concerned were caught off guard and could not intervene in time.

When the chief secretary was contacted, he said, "This episode is a symbol of how multiplicity of authorities is causing a problem. The DDA has done it again.'' However, Mehta only plans to hold a comprehensive meeting to take stock of the situation and discuss all the problems related to night shelters next week. This week he says he is caught with some more pressing assignments.

While the authorities take their own time to react, scores of people will be abandoned on the streets to face the cold weather. All three shelters that have been demolished in the past five days were put up by NGOs appointed for the task under the purview of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board.