Help comes from many for inmates of gutted home

Help in the form of cash, food, blankets and medicines has been offered to 100 odd inmates of a shelter home in south Delhi’s Vasant Kunt, who were rendered homeless after a major fire on Friday.

The facility, run by NGO Earth Survivors Foundation, doubled up as an old age home as well as a shelter for the destitute and mentally ill.

The caretakers of the shelter home said a number of people contacted them on Saturday to donate food, medicines, blankets and cash. Many college students also came forward to extend a helping hand for the inmates.

The victims are the people who had come on the road in October last year after the expiry of the lease of the land where their shelter was built.

They had been shifted to outer Delhi’s Narela, but returned after the land owner gave a six month’s extension.

Now, a property dealer has also agreed to rent space nearby to construct a permanent structure.

“We will rent the plot after giving some token money and then give the rest of the amount in the next four months.

The cash that we collect from these donations will be used in renting the space for a permanent structure,” said Ravi Kalra, founder of the shelter home.

Currently, Rs 65,000 per month is being paid as rent. After the fire, the inmates are living under marquee erected on the ground that housed the shelter home.

Meanwhile, post-mortem was conducted of 60-year-old Ramesh Chand and Poonam, 27, whose charred bodies were found by police after the blaze was put out.

While Ramesh was cremated at the Vasant Kunj crematorium after his nephew, a Delhi Police Sub-inspector identified him, Poonam will be cremated on Sunday.

Poonam was found on the streets of Connaught Place, and her true identity is yet to be established.

“We do not even know her name, Poonam is a name that we gave her,” Kalra added. In absence of her relatives, her DNA samples have been preserved.