Only a few opt for Moti Nagar night shelter due to its distant location

The night shelter located at Moti Nagar here has all facilities such as beds with mattresses and heaters have also been installed but sadly not many people visit it to stay during the night due to its far-off location.

A visit to the place revealed that the night shelter was in a good condition but its location was the main deterrent factor due to which it could not be used in a proper way. With a capacity of nearly 50 beds, only five-six persons turned up to use the facility. It is on one of the extreme cold days recently that around 25 persons came to the shelter.

No facility to drop visitors in morning

Though the homeless are ferried to night shelters in city buses, they have to return on their own.

An occupant at the shelter said a bus dropped him at the night shelter for free but in the morning he had to return on his own. “I have to spent Rs 100 to reach the place where I work as a daily labourer and it becomes a costly affair for me. It is only during the extreme weather conditions that I come here. Otherwise, I sleep near Guru Nanak Stadium,” he said.

Keshav, who was using the facility, said he usually stays around Durga Mata Mandir and the shelter was approximately 12 kilometres away. “In the morning, I have to shell out money to reach my destination. Sometimes, I take lift but many times I have to take a bus or auto-rickshaw. We are dropped at the shelter, in the same way, we should be dropped back to our destinations as well,” he said.

An attendant at the Moti Nagar night shelter said they had beds and heaters but not many people come here.

“It is only during extreme weather conditions that the occupancy increases but it was never occupied fully. The far-off location seems to be the main negative point for this shelter,” he said.