Homeless eviction drive reunites couple in Indore
BHOPAL: The Indore Municipal Corporation’s decision to move homeless people to locations outside the city limits, which triggered protests and became a matter of shame for the civic body, brought happiness to a woman who reunited with her husband.
“My husband went missing on January 3. I searched for him a lot but didn’t find him anywhere. I lodged a complaint with the police on January 15, but the police also failed to locate him,” Pushpa Salvi, 52, whose husband is mentally ill, said.
“On January 30, I got a call from an unknown number and the person over the phone introduced himself as an officer of the Indore Municipal Corporation. He inquired about my husband’s name and his whereabouts. I told him that he was missing, then the officer told me that he found my husband at Nipaniya’s by-pass. I hired a taxi and the officer directed the driver to the exact location,” said Salvi.
“When I reached there, I found about six people, including my husband, sitting on the ground. The IMC officials present there allowed me to take my husband with me. I took him to a hospital for a health check-up. The doctor allowed him to go home on Monday,” said Salvi.
Chandan Nagar police station town inspector Yogesh Tomar said he was happy that Salvi found her husband.
“The woman works as a daily wager and used to live alone with her husband. Salvi’s husband met with an accident a few years ago and became mentally ill,” said the officer.
IMC commissioner Pratibha Pal couldn’t be contacted for comment.
On Saturday, a video went viral on social media in which IMC employees were seen dropping off elderly and homeless people from a truck filled with rags near Shipra village in the district . After the villagers protested, IMC employees were seen putting the homeless back on the truck.
“If the villagers didn’t oppose the act of IMC officials of dumping elderly homeless people outside the city, I might have lost my husband for ever. IMC officials tried to locate the family members of these people, including my husband, after chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took action against them,” she added.
The chief minister suspended IMC deputy commissioner Pratap Singh Solanki and sacked two contractual employees of the municipal corporation.
The Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission has also sought a report from the state’s chief secretary, Indore divisional commissioner, the district collector and IMC chief.