Hisar freezing, but raen basera shut

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, January 1

Mercury has reached freezing levels in Hisar, but the government night shelter (raen basera) for the needy in the city is non-functional.

Set up nearly 2 km from the bus stand in Nav Jiwan Nagar, it is also extremely difficult to locate at night. Most shelter homes, incidentally, are usually found near the main bus stand. When this correspondent visited the raen basera during a bitingly cold evening recently, he found the shelter locked. When he contacted the mobile number put up at the gate, a staff member at the other end said he was on leave for the last 2-3 days but another staffer had been deployed at the home. He also wrongly claimed that the shelter was shut during morning hours but remained open in the evening.

Arun Sihag, a social activist in the city, alleged that there were no arrangements for the homeless. He said he found people sleeping in the red square market area every day. A farmer from Kitlana village, Naresh, claimed that he could not locate the raen basera and had to take shelter at the railway station. The Chief Engineer of the MC, Ramji Lal, said: “We have deployed a team which takes care of the needy and have sufficient space.”

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