The Supreme Court today asked the authorities to carry out its order in “letter and spirit” to “preserve and protect” the lives of homeless people by providing them roofs with all necessary facilities, especially in North India, which is in the grip of intense cold waves.
“The whole endeavour should be to preserve and protect the human life,” a bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Dipak Misra said while asking governments of the northern States to implement its order “without loss of time.”
Night shelters
It said not only the cold waves but the snowfall in some States such as Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab have added to the trouble for the homeless and destitute to whom night shelters of permanent or temporary nature must be made available.
“Permanent structure will take time and winter is intense but relief has to be provided. Please ensure people's life is preserved and protected by erecting at least temporary structure as night shelters,” the bench said.
The remarks were made by the bench while it was perusing the report of the inspection of the night shelters in the national capital, carried by the court-appointed commissioners and officials of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) between January 9 and 2.
The court asked the Joint Apex Advisory Committee, comprising the members of the NGOs and Delhi government officials, looking into the issues related to homeless people, to take action on the basis of the report to ensure that relief reaches helpless people “without any loss of time.”
The bench was told by the Additional Solicitor General, Mr Mohan Parasaran, that there are night shelters which are not fully occupied and advertisement would be made through both the electronic and print media so that homeless people can make night stay at those centres.
AIIMS facility
The apex court, which had expressed anguish on January 9 over reports about scores of people sleeping on pavements outside the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), was told today that necessary action has been taken and an area measuring 600 square feet has been allocated in the hospital to build a night shelter, which has already been made operational in a temporary structure.
The bench was apprised by the Additional Solicitor General that the place was earlier earmarked for storing generic medicine. He said an NGO has also been allocated a place in AIIMS to run the shelter.
While dealing with the issue of night shelters in hospitals, the bench said, “Infrastructure in hospitals is hardly enough to meet the needs of people visiting there.”
“Look at AIIMS, we require six or seven more AIIMS. Not only people from Delhi but people from all over the country visit AIIMS. Some are so poor that they can't even afford dharamshalas. Their lives too are to be preserved and protected,” the bench said.
Some of the States, which are in the grip of intense cold wave, filed their affidavits on various steps taken by them for providing night shelters.