No money to manage shelter homes: NGOs

NGOs working for the destitutes complain that they have not received payment, figuring in crores, from the city government to run shelter homes in the capital since January.

The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board, which looks after the working of shelter homes, lays the blame on the government for the delay in issuing funds.

An NGO, Nari Utthan Samiti, said that it has not received any payment since January. “We have produced all the bills but we haven’t got any money from the DUSIB,” said Santosh Sharma, Director of the NGO, which runs a shelter home in Geeta Colony.

Another non-profit organisation, Mahilayan Pragati Ki Aur, runs six shelters.

“We haven’t received payment since February,” said Usha Nischal, Director of the NGO. “We get Rs 85,085 per month for running a shelter home,” she added.

The NGO runs three Rain Baseras in Tilak Nagar and a shelter home in Uttam Nagar, among other areas.

The DUSIB agrees that the NGOs have not been paid since January. “We don’t have funds to clear the dues of the NGOs. They haven’t been paid any money since January,” said Kamal Malhotra, DUSIB director (shelter homes).

“We have received all the bills by the NGOs. As soon as we get the funds we will disburse the amount on clearing their dues,” Malhotra added.

Asked how much money does the DUSIB have to pay in total, the official told Deccan Herald that the amount runs in crores.

“We have demanded Rs 3.5 crore from the city government,” he said. The last payment made by the DUSIB to NGOs was of nearly Rs 2 crore, said the official.

The NGOs said the DUSIB invariably tells them that the payment will be made by the month-end. “When we called DUSIB a couple of days ago, they told us that we would clear the money by May-end,” said Santosh Sharma.

While the NGOs claim that they never get paid on time, the DUSIB accused the NGOs of never producing the bills on time which affects the timely distribution of the payment.

“We have asked the NGOs to produce the bills by the 7th of every month. But the non-profit organisations are never able to produce bills on time,” said Malhotra.

According to DUSIB, there are 181 shelter homes in Delhi.