New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday took note of non-functional mobile toilets that cater to homeless people living in night shelters and sought a report from the city government by Friday.
"Please inform us tomorrow as to how many permanent and temporary toilets are there for the shelter homes. And, how many of them are connected to the sewer," a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said.
The court's direction came when it was informed that most of the mobile toilets, which have tanks attached to them, cannot be used as they already filled up and hence, choked.
The bench asked the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) to file a report on Friday. "Provide us the details and we will pass an appropriate order," the bench said after NGO Shahri Adhikar Manch Begharon Ke Liye raised several problems faced by homeless persons living in night shelters.
The NGO alleged that the Delhi government gave wrong figure about functional drugs de-addiction centres in Delhi. "Out of the list of 32 de-addiction centres (given by the Delhi government), only three are functional namely, National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (AIIMS), De-addiction Clinic at GB Pant Hospital, IHBAS at Dilshad Garden," the NGO said.
Even these three de-addiction centres have no provision for the homeless citizens, it said, adding some places, which have been described as de-addiction centres, have no such facilities.
"We will ask the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) to ensure that all the de-addiction centres are made functional," the bench said. Earlier, the court had asked the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to deal with the issue of alleged harassment and police brutality towards homeless drug addicts in the national capital.
The court is hearing a case it took up on its own after media reports highlighted the absence of enough and proper night shelters for the homeless in the city. The bench had said that it would continue to deal with the issues of night shelters for the homeless and the destitute and de-addiction of drugs users.
It, however, said that the alleged police brutalities can be taken care of by the NHRC. The court had asked the Delhi government to apprise it about the services available for de-addiction of homeless drug people and their follow-up treatment.
On March 26, the court had observed that the status of night shelters in the national capital is "thoroughly unsatisfactory". The court had called for the DUSIB CEO to assist it after it was told that homeless persons in the shelters get only 15 square feet of space to sleep, which was similar to the dimensions of a railway berth.
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