HYDERABAD: Close to 40 inmates at the GHMC men’s night shelter, whose roof is the Begumpet flyover, have been going through sleepless nights since monsoon hit the city. Thursday night was no different. Heavy rains lashed the city leading to water leakage through the broken ceiling and seepage into the shelter. While some men, who returned from work on Thursday, had to move the beds from the four leakage points, a few others had to stay on their feet clearing out the water.
“We have been asking the concerned GHMC officials to repair these leakages but nothing has been done yet. More people come down to the shelter during this season and it is getting difficult,” informed B Ramanji, a caretaker of the shelter appointed by Aman Vedika, an NGO that takes care of the logistics while GHMC has provided the space and the beds.
Venkat Reddy, an inmate who has been in the place for the last four months rued, “In case, it rains in the night, they have to wake up and start moving all the beds. What is the point of providing the beds in the first place?”
A month ago, a special committee set up by the Supreme Court has visited the home to check if it was being run as per the operational guidelines of Shelter for Urban Homeless under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission.
It was also recommended that they set up RO purifier, CCTV cameras, coolers and computers. But none of them have been implemented yet. The official concerned, project officer for Shelter for Urban Homeless, Ratna Kumari, from GHMC was unavailable when Express tried to contact her.