2 years on, night shelter work still not complete

Raj Sadosh

Abohar, February 27

The Central and state governments had announced plans to provide ‘Rain Basera’ (night shelters for homeless) in towns after the apex court and High Court took notice of the problem raised by non-government organisations about three years back.

Under the scheme, the Central government had earmarked Rs 43.24 lakh in December 2017 for a night shelter at Abohar and the job was assigned to the local Municipal Council. Till then the MC had been using a 100 sq ft small room that was initially used for an octroi collection post to run a make-shift ‘Rain Basera’ with the help of an NGO. However, homeless people did not use it due to heavy pollution in the area. The shelter home that was also sans basic amenities was shut later.

The MC provided a piece of land for the building in its office complex and allotted construction work to Bathinda-based contractor Ashok Gupta. He was directed to complete the work by end of December 2018 as its inauguration was planned for January 2019. The shelter was also to facilitate stay of passengers who land here late in night. However, the work has not been completed so far.

MC engineer Karnail Singh claimed that about 50 per cent of the total cost of the project had been paid to the contractor. After issuing him notices three times, the authorities had been requested to put him in the black list.

Gupta, however, said the work could not be started as per the schedule due to delay in finalising modalities. About 75 per cent of work had been completed while the MC had paid Rs 19 lakh only, he said, adding that bills worth Rs 9 lakh were not cleared despite repeated requests.

NGO Manav Sewa Samiti chief Subhash Manav said delay in work had affected homeless people. “We escorted about 30 homeless persons to shelter homes in Sriganganagar and Kotkapura last year. More can be found wandering around the railway station and in the town.”