NEW DELHI: Two days after the Delhi High Court took suo motu cognisance of patients and attendants sleeping by the roadsides and footpaths near All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in peak winter, a ground survey by TNIE shows that subways and temporary shelters have emerged the last-resort refuge for hapless people.
The subway connecting the AIIMS Metro station, long used by patients’ attendants at night, has now formally been converted into a temporary winter shelter. Until recently, security officials would clear the subway of people by as early as 5 am after letting them use it for the night. However, following the court’s intervention, the government, in collaboration with NGO SPYM, has begun registering those sleeping there to ensure access to basic necessities.
An SPYM official registering names in the subway on the intervening night of January 16 and January 17 said this was the first time such an exercise had been undertaken. “We have been asked to register everyone present here who needs a shelter. They will not be displaced now. For the next two months, those who fail to find space elsewhere can stay here. They will be asked to leave only in March.
This is what we have been told,” the official said. At the same time, authorities have intensified efforts to move people sleeping in the open to designated shelters. Anyone found resting on footpaths or roads around AIIMS is being shifted to Vishram Sadan, the 30-bedded rest house at Safdarjung Hospital’s trauma centre, or to newly established pagoda tents. Each pagoda shelter has 30 beds, but the official said it can accommodate up to 45 people.
Three new pagoda shelters have been added to the existing 32, increasing their capacity from 320 to 350 beds.