Night shelters better post CM’s inspection
LUCKNOW:Even as chief minister Yogi Adityanath wants no one to sleep in the open and is ordering the administration time and again to arrange shelters for the homeless, the administration needs to put in more efforts to house all those without a roof over their heads. Some people sleeping under the open sky said ID cards should not be mandatory to get admitted to a night shelter.
However, the chief minister’s visit to some night shelters in the city has helped the poor and the homeless.
DM Lucknow Abhishek Prakash said, “Adequate arrangements have been made to house more people. The officials have been directed to ensure the implementation of the CM’s order.”
The chief minister had inspected night shelters in Daliganj and near civil hospital and inmates said since then things had changed a lot.
“We get hot water and more blankets have been distributed,” said an inmate of a night shelter in Old City. All the plastic sheets from night shelters outside civil hospital and KGMU have gone. “The administration has distributed blankets,” said a woman inmate.
But still there are several homeless people who are forced to spend the night under the open sky because they do not have valid identification cards. However, there is no such bar for bonfires.
“I do not have any I-card so I had to live under the open sky a few days ago,” said a Basti resident, who was here for some work. Many of those living in the open even pay some amount to private guards of offices so that they let them sleep under the roof.
The Lucknow Municipal Corporation runs 23 permanent night shelters, with a total capacity of 2, 000. These shelters have beddings, blankets, bonfires and toilets.
But as per the government’s estimate, there are more than 5,000 homeless people in the state capital. “You can see people sleeping on rickshaws, in stairs, in rain shelters,” said an activist Vaibhav Gupta, adding, “There is so much open space in Lucknow. The government should open bigger night shelters to house more people.”
Some inmates said they did not get hot water, especially in the Old City. However, an official said, “There may be stray instances but most shelters have hot water facility. We will improve it.”
Earlier, the LMC lit bonfires at over 350 places, using over 18,000kg wood every day. FIR over missing blankets It was reported in a section of the media that some officials took back the blankets after the CM’s visit.
The authorities filed a case against an unknown person on Saturday saying they had not taken back the blankets. The police registered the case and started investigation about the person who allegedly took back the blankets.