Night shelters: Too little, too late

BHUBANESWAR: Despite a Supreme Court directive, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been moving at a snail’s pace in the construction of night shelters. With only two night shelters operating in the City, the homeless are left in the open suffering the winter chill. The unseasonal rain lashing the City for the past two days was the last thing that they had expected.The BMC has identified three areas for night shelters, Ashok Nagar, Kharvel Nagar and the Old Town. While BMC owns land in the Old Town, they are waiting for the General Administration Department (GA) to hand them over the plots needed for their construction in Ashok Nagar and Kharvel Nagar. According to BMC officials, the work on the night shelter at Old Town should start by March. They are waiting for relaxation of the model code of conduct for the upcoming panchayat elections. The GA officials, however, did not respond to the queries about progress in land acquisition for the night shelters. Sources said the pace of land acquisition also depends on availability of encroachment-free Government land.