Delhi BJP chief visits night shelter, expresses dissatisfaction over arrangements
Jan 01, 2023
New Delhi [India], January 1 : Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Virendra Sachdeva on Saturday visited a night shelter at Mori Gate and expressed dissatisfaction over the arrangements made by the Kejriwal government in the shelter.
Sachdeva distributed blankets to people at the night shelter.
"Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claims that his government has cleaned the city and made arrangements in all shelter homes. But here I can see people who had to sleep without any arrangements this winter. I can see a dilapidated building and no shelter for the people," Sachdeva told ANI.
Last week, Delhi LG VK Saxena transferred the Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) CEO K. Mahesh, shunting him to Union Territory Civil Services (UTCS) as Special Director after night shelters were found overcrowded and deficient in toilet facilities.
The development comes following LG's visit to night shelters run by DUSIB at Inter State Bus Terminal (ISBT) and Hanuman Mandir, on the night of December 23 where it was found that, while all the shelters at the location had a total capacity of only about 600 beds, there were thousands who were forced to sleep on the pavements in the bitter cold.
Moreover, the LG during his visit had also flagged the issue of inhumane sanitary conditions for the occupants and for other homeless, forced to reside on streets under the open sky.
Due to the severe lack of toilet facilities attached to the Night Shelters, the occupants and others were forced to defecate in the open, mostly on the adjacent Yamuna Bank.
Apart from polluting the river, this also posed severe health hazards to already marginalized people forced to live on the streets.
Besides this, there were no enclosures or facilities for the people to have a bath before going every day to earn their livelihoods.
Notably, it is the responsibility of DUSIB to provide toilets and other sanitary facilities at such locations.
