New Delhi, Jan 14 (PTI) As icy winds and cold conditionsswept Delhi this winter, authorities in the national capitalfailed to persuade more than 1,100 homeless people totemporarily move to night shelters, according to officialdata.
The Delhi government has been informed that roughly 1,167people scattered across the city have rejected repeatedattempts by rescue teams to place them in night shelters.
The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), whichdeploys the rescue teams, has written to the city government'srevenue department apprising it of the situation.
The reluctance shown by the homeless people to shift tonight shelters stems from a set of reasons such as unhygienicconditions, fear of theft, lack of space, and brawls involvingjunkies.
"It has been reported by the rescue teams that about1,167 persons found in different parts of Delhi during rescueoperations were reluctant or refused to shift to the nearbynight shelters," DUSIB member (engineering) M K Tyagi wrote ina letter to the revenue secretary last month.
The letter mentioned that in addition to the above, 30families displaced from the Kathputli Colony JJ camp have beenspotted on pavements under the Shadipur flyover in west Delhi.
"They are displaced persons of the Kathputli Colony J Jcamp, which has been recently demolished by the DelhiDevelopment Authority," Tyagi wrote.
The largest concentration of such homeless people, notwilling to move to shelters, are in areas such as the KashmereGate ISBT, Hanuman Mandir in Connaught Place and AIIMS.
According to a list attached to the letter, the numbersare: 200 near the ISBT, 200 near AIIMS, 150 in Safdarjung, 50near Gurdwara Bangla Sahib and 20 near Hanuman Mandir.
Last week, the plight of the homeless had emerged as yetanother flashpoint between Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal andLt Governor Anil Baijal after Kejriwal accused Baijal ofputting a "useless officer" in-charge of the DUSIB.
Kejriwal had targeted DUSIB CEO Shurbir Singh after asection of the media, quoting an NGO working in this area,claimed that there have been as many as 44 homeless deaths inJanuary so far.
Singh had categorically rejected the reports claimingthere are multiple factors behind the deaths of the homelessand it cannot be associated with cold.
Currently, DUSIB's 261 night shelters, run through NGOson contract basis, have a capacity to house 20,934 people.
Singh claimed the peak occupancy during nights this winterseason has been 13,810.
Of the 261 shelters, 83 are concrete structures, 115 areporta cabins, while the rest, save one, are tents.
Every night, a subway near AIIMS is thrown open for thefamilies of outstation patients thronging the premier hospitalto take shelter. PTI SBRABH.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.