Coimbatore Corporation to construct more night shelters

The Coimbatore Corporation has submitted a proposal to the State Government to establish three more night shelters.

Proposal

According to Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan, the civic body’s proposal included refurbishment of the existing night shelter in R.S. Puram.

It had made the proposal under the Central Government’s National Urban Livelihood Mission.

The R.S. Puram night shelter housed 100 persons, including 11 mentally challenged persons, whom the civic body had allowed to stay on humanitarian basis.

Earlier, the number of mentally challenged was more but following a controversy that the night shelter did not have the permission to house them, the Corporation with assistance from the District Disabled Rehabilitation Officer had housed them in homes that had the permission.

Mr. Vijayakarthikeyan said that the new shelters would come up in Poosaripalayam and Ganapathy, where the Corporation would use existing buildings.

In Thudiyalur, the Corporation would construct a new building.

The proposal was based on a survey the civic body had done in the recent past to identify shelter-less persons. The number it arrived at was 721. It included those seeking alms, migrant workers and physically challenged.

In the survey, it also found that the number of shelter-less was high in Thudiyalur – 131. He said that the Poosaripalayam and Ganapathy homes would start functioning much ahead of the Thudiyalur shelter.