BENGALURU: Noting that there was no clear statement on the systematic efforts made to identify homeless persons on the streets in the city, the Karnataka High Court on Friday directed the state government and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to place on record the steps taken to identify such persons.
A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice BV Nagarathna issued the direction after hearing the public interest litigation through video conference. Referring to the government’s statement, the bench said that the directions issued by the Additional Chief Secretrary, Urban Development Department, to identify shelterless and protect them from infection were not followed by the BBMP.
The bench said that the statement revealed that far greater number of persons without shelter was identified but surprisingly that number was not mentioned. They are allowed to stay on streets and this is disturbing, it said. On the last date of hearing, BBMP had informed the court that 40 marshals were deployed to look out for shelterless on streets in 198 wards, but not a single report was placed on record and there was no report from the zonal joint commissioners.
Observing that there is no clear statement on efforts made to identify homeless persons, the bench said, “Can people be allowed to stay on streets? It will be violation of lockdown norms including social distancing. What action is taken to ascertain whether such people have symptoms of COVID-19?” “We are not convinced with the statement,” the bench said about the government stating that many people living in temporary sheds on streets refused to move to shelter homes for fear of losing accommodation and believing that sheds are safer than shelters.