Shelter all Delhi's homeless by evening, orders SC

Shelter all Delhi's homeless by evening, orders SC

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court Wednesday ordered the Delhi government to provide night shelters to all of the capital’s homeless by this evening.

Taking note of the plight of the homeless during the ongoing cold wave, the apex court ordered the government to hold a meeting by 4.30 p.m. to decide how the order was going to be carried out.

Justices Tarun Chatterjee and S. Radhakrishnan told the government representative to immediately advertise the locations of all the night shelters in the capital through television and print media.

The authorities must also ensure that the night shelters have basic amenities such as blankets, electricity and toilets, the judges ordered.

Civic authorities run 40 night shelters in Delhi. Their combined capacity cannot house even a small fraction of the capital’s estimated 150,000 homeless people.