Delhi’s Urban Development Minister chaired a high-level meeting regarding the arrangement and operation of night shelters

New Delhi – Delhi’s Urban Development Minister Mr. Ashish Sood held a high-level meeting today at the Delhi Secretariat regarding the arrangement and management of night shelters operating in Delhi. In this meeting, along with senior officials of DUSIB, the District Magistrates of all the districts of Delhi were also connected through video conferencing. Information on night shelters was given by the Member (DUSIB) through PPT. After the meeting, the Minister informed that today’s high level meeting was called in relation to the deficiencies and mismanagement found by him yesterday during the surprise inspection of five night shelters in Sarai Kale Khan, Delhi. The Minister also informed that in today’s meeting, the concerned district officers have been instructed to inspect the facilities and arrangements being provided in the night shelters. Along with this, they were also instructed to coordinate and cooperate with DUSIB, so that the functioning of the night shelters can be made transparent, strong and effective. All the District Magistrates were instructed to immediately inspect the night shelters in their respective districts, and prepare a detailed report, and submit it to DUSIB or the Minister’s office. He also said that strict action will be taken against any kind of negligence or irregularity.

In the meeting, serious problems like the presence of fake employees in night shelters, activities of anti-social elements and mismanagement were also discussed in detail.
The Minister told the DUSIB officials about the worrying condition of cleanliness in the night shelters, water leakage, power failure, unavailability of drinking water, absence of attendance register, cleaning by unauthorized people and many other problems. Mr. Sood also said that the presence of ghost (fake) employees in the night shelters, presence of anti-social/criminal elements, mismanagement in the operation of night shelters, apprehension of any untoward incident due to security lapses especially in women’s night shelters, etc. should be resolved appropriately and quickly. He also told the DUSIB officials that he himself had visited the night shelters yesterday and closely observed all these irregularities.
DUSIB informed that they are developing an app-based system to track attendance of staff working in night shelters etc. so that these problems can be resolved.

Mr. Sood directed DUSIB to get all the night shelters to get inspected regularly by the District Magistrates through the SDMs concerned. All DMs will be shared a standardized inspection proforma to ensure timely resolution.
The Minister directed all District Magistrates to regularly inspect the night shelters falling under their respective limits. The inspection report will be sent to DUSIB and the Minister’s office. It should be ensured that no outsider with a criminal background is staying in the night shelter. For this, the possibility of organizing Aadhar card camps in all districts was also asked to be explored. All District Magistrates and Sub-District Magistrates will also conduct surprise inspections of night shelters so that irregularities can be controlled. A separate list will also be prepared of those night shelters where people are staying with their families.