SAMBALPUR: With mercury continuing to dip in the city and night shelters lying vacant, Sambalpur Municipal Corporation (SMC) formed three night squads on Monday which will identify the homeless people and shift them to Shelters for Homeless (SUH).
There are three SUHs under SMC at Badabazar, Hirakud and Burla besides one within the premises of district headquarters hospital (DHH) which cater to attendants of patients. The SUH at Badabazaar in Sambalpur has a capacity to accommodate 100 people and the ones at Burla and Hirakud can house 50 persons each.
Official sources said, the squads will shift the homeless people to the three SUHs which have adequate beds and blankets besides drinking water and toilet facilities. SMC enforcement officer (EO) Subhankar Mohanty said,” SUHs have already been made functional in view of winter.
However, SMC has found that while some homeless are hesitant to shift, many are unaware about reopening of the night shelters.”The night squads will visit designated places and convince the homeless to shift. On an average, 10 to 12 people come to sleep at each SUH every night and this time too efforts will be made to ensure more people are made to stay in these places, Mohanty informed.
The SMC has also planned to make announcements and appeal to people in general to apprise the civic body if they see any homeless person sleeping under the open sky. Besides, hoardings will be put up across the city about the SUHs.
A city mission manager will be assigned for each shelter, who can be contacted to inform about any homeless person. Like last year, SMC will seek help of NGOs to put up temporary shelters if needed, the EO added.