NHRC sends notice to govt on destitutes

Panel seeks report within four weeks

 The National Human Rights Commission on Friday has issued notice to Delhi Chief Secretary on the 1.5 lakh homeless spending nights on footpaths. The commission had sought a report within four weeks.

The NHRC has taken suo motu cognisance of a reports that over one lakh destitutes are spending nights on footpaths and under bridges across the city.

According to reports, the shelter home in the Metro cities must attend to the homeless as soon as the minimum temperature reaches below normal.

But in Delhi, some night shelters remain unoccupied even after the mercury touched four degree Celsius.

The authority that looks after shelter homes — Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board — said there are 175 shelter homes in the city, which cater to around 14,500 homeless. But NGOs working for the homeless said these shelter homes can accommodate only 7,000 homeless. These homes too are facing scarcity of infrastructure and sanitation.

According to a plan of the Delhi Development Authority, which is yet to be implemented, there must be a night shelter in every area having one-lakh population.
DUSIB has got only six vans to rescue the homeless in the entire city. They said not only more shelter homes are needed but a proper mechanism is required to transport them to the nearest shelter.

After two homeless persons were found dead — one of the corpse had the face chewed up by rodents — in Yamuna Pusta area on Wednesday morning, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal assured that 45 new porta-cabin shelters will be set up for the homeless across the city.