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Late night visits to shelters shocked LG VK Saxena to find that many people in Delhi, who lack toilets and space, defecate along the Yamuna and sleep on footpaths.
According to his office, Saxena visited the shelter near Kashmir Gate on Friday evening and spoke to residents in and around the shelter. Saxena asked them about the facilities being provided to them and took stock of the layout and amenities of these houses, they said. People told him that the night shelter could only accommodate 600 people, and that there were about 5,000 homeless people like them in the area, many of whom slept on the side of the road and on pavements.
He was told that the houses only served meals to residents registered with the shelter, which meant that a thousand others had no choice but to look elsewhere for dinner.
They also faced an acute shortage of toilets in shelters, forcing them to resort to open spaces along the banks of the Yamuna, officials said.
Although the official said that the LG is deeply concerned about the lack of capacity in the shelters and toilets, the official appreciates the adequate number of blankets/blankets and cleanliness inside the shelters.
The Lt. Governor expressed shock that thousands of people were forced to defecate in the open in the national capital even as remote areas of the country were achieving the ‘Open Toilet India’ goal. “He also noticed the lack of cleanliness in the vicinity due to open dumping of paper/plastic plates and cups,” said the official.
Apart from directly polluting the already polluted Yamuna, open defecation also deprives poor people of their personal dignity and poses various health hazards, the LG official added. According to his office, Saxena said that the Delhi-2041 master plan would include provisions to provide housing to the homeless and provide them with basic amenities.
He will also take up the issue with the Chief Minister to ensure that those who sleep on the streets are immediately given the opportunity to sleep elsewhere in the city, the official said. Saxena also stressed the need to have shelters near the workplaces of these people, many of whom are migrant workers. This will help employees save time and transportation costs and free up space for those forced to live in ISBTs. People at the shelter told Saxena that many of them are hired by caterers to work as waiters and waitresses at weddings in far-flung locations.
The LG has also come up with a comprehensive plan to rehabilitate beggars and drug addicts in the area, the official said. More than 1,000 beggars living near Kashmir Gate will be shifted to night shelters elsewhere in September next year in view of the G20 summit here in September next year, the government said. The city administration had on December 15 requested the Delhi Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) to evacuate the beggars living in the area.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is automatically generated from syndicated feeds.)
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