The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Delhi Government to co-ordinate with the concerned public bodies in the Capital for providing night shelter to the homeless persons and to prepare an action plan for finding a permanent solution to the problem.
A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice A.P. Shah and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw asked the Delhi Chief Secretary to convene a meeting of the officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, New Delhi Municipal Council, Delhi Cantonment Board and the Delhi Development Authority on Wednesday to discuss and draw up an action plan for a long term as well as a short term solution of the paucity of night shelters for the Capital’s homeless.
The Bench asked the Chief Secretary to submit the action plan to it on Friday.
Meanwhile, the MCD informed the Court that it had identified a vacant building at Motia Khan in Central Delhi for keeping homeless people there in the winter season.
The building would be provided power and water connections and repaired before shifting the homeless persons there.
Counsel for the Delhi Government informed the Court that only 70 per cent of the total accommodation available at its 17 temporary shelters set up for the homeless persons was at present occupied.
The Bench was hearing a suo motu petition on the basis of media reports about the demolition of a night shelter on Pusa Road by the local body on December 22 last year.
The Bench had in the last hearing pulled up the local body for razing down the shelter without making alternative arrangements for the 250-odd homeless people staying there.
Ten days after the demolition, a 35-year-old balloon vendor, who had been driven out of the shelter, had died due to severe cold.
The local body has since restored the shelter.
