Bhubaneswar: Following Supreme Court’s intervention on lack of shelters for urban poor, the state government Wednesday asked collectors of 20 districts to make operational all the existing night shelters round the clock.
Housing and urban development (H&UD) department officials say the government has constructed night shelters in various urban local bodies (ULBs) under Centre’s National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM).
However, some of these night shelters are lying unused while others function only during the night. Now, the government has decided to open all night shelters round the clock so that the poor can stay there 24×7.
H&UD secretary G Mathivathanan Wednesday sent letters to collectors of 20 districts where night shelters are functioning apart from commissioners of five municipal corporations and executive officers of all municipalities and NACs in this regard.
Expressing concern over lack of shelters for urban homeless (SUH), the Supreme Court directed all states and Centre to ensure the facility for poor people. The apex court had observed that in spite of repeated directions the implementation and operationalisation of SUH projects are not up to the desired extent.
It constituted a committee under the chairmanship of a retired Delhi high court judge to verify availability of SUH in each urban local body (ULB), compliance of existing SUH guidelines, reason for slow progress and utilisation of funds allocated for the purpose.
The panel would visit different states and make suitable recommendations for initiating punitive actions against the non-compliant officials.
“As the visit of the Supreme Court committee and verification of the SUH projects are going to invite widespread publicity and a poor performance in this regard may bring adverse publicity and criticism to the district and the state, I would request collectors to kind review the status urgently and take immediate corrective actions,” Mathivathanan wrote to collectors.
Post News Network
