The Hindu        23.12.2014  

10 community halls become night shelters for homeless

A homeless man braves the cold wave in the Capital.Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

With North India in the grip of cold wave, the Delhi Development Authority has decided to convert ten of its community halls into temporary night shelters for the homeless.

DDA Vice-Chairman Balvinder Kumar has directed ten community halls to be handed over to the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) to set up temporary night shelters, which would be available till January 31, 2015, to tide over the acute winter of Delhi.

The move comes in pursuance of the directions of the Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung.

The community halls are located at Dwarka, D-Block, Pocket-3, Bindapur; Dwarka, Block-E, Bindapur; Dwarka, Sector-1, Isolated Pocket – 15, Mahavir Enclave, Dwarka and Pocket-21-A, Naseerpur.

Besides these, there are others at Rohini, Sector-B-7; Naharpur Village, Rohini; North Sec. B-2, Narela; Sector –B2, Pocket-F, Narela; South-Village Masoodpur, Masoodpur; East-Near Police Station Krishna Nagar; Kanti Nagar; and Phase-III Kondli Gharoli.

It is to be noted that the Delhi High Court has been pulling up the Delhi government and also the DUSIB over lack of proper night shelters for homeless.

The Hindu       23.12.2014

GHMC to launch 2nd phase of driver-cum-owner scheme

: The GHMC is getting ready to launch the second phase of ‘driver-cum-owner’ scheme where close to 200 unemployed youth are likely to be given brand new Maruti Dzire cars.

The first tranche of the scheme saw 105 vehicles handed over by Deputy CM Moahmood Ali four months ago.

Special Officer and Commissioner Somesh Kumar said that in the second phase, 90 per cent of the bank loan has been allotted to SC/ST category with 10 per cent beneficiary contribution and for others, it will be 80 per cent bank loan and 20 per cent beneficiary contribution.

All the first phase vehicles are being utilised by the municipal corporation for official use by paying a rent of Rs.25,000 per month.

Special discount

The Maruti Suzuki firm itself is giving a special discount of Rs.76,000 and loan is by the State Bank of Hyderabad for a period of six years. A subsidy of 35 per cent is given to SC/ST beneficiaries under SCSP/TSP component of Industrial Investment Promotion Policy (IIPP) 2010-15.

Unclaimed bodies

GHMC has also constituted a panel of officials including the police and health department to take a call on providing the unclaimed bodies in the Government hospitals in the city to the teaching hospitals for a prescribed fee. Mr. Somesh Kumar also stated that there was a strange situation where medical colleges were not getting bodies for teaching while many bodies were rotting in the mortuaries. Steps will also be taken to ensure that such bodies are disposed of with 72 hours, a press release said.

e-office

The municipal corporation will also become the first civic body in the country to go for total e-office soon and already close to 5,000 files have been digitised with the help of the National Informatics Centre (NIC). Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will be officially launching the e-file after the number reaches 10,000 files, added Mr. Kumar.