A night shelter at Malisahi slum area in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 4: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has set up three night shelters to accommodate nearly 260 homeless poor people of the capital. The corporation has also decided to set up seven more such shelters for which the general administration department would provide the land.

While the night shelter at Malisahi near the Sriya Cinema in Kharvel Nagar started operating today with 40 inmates — all females, the two other shelters at Buddheswari Colony Community Centre and Gyananagar Community Centre will begin operation soon, said sources in the corporation.

The beneficiaries being accommodated in these centres were identified by the Centre for Development Research and Training (Cenderet) of the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, through a survey.

“The Cenderet has taken into account the homeless people in different areas. It found a concentration of these people near the railway station and Master Canteen Square,” said BMC slum improvement officer Dillip Kumar Routrai.

“We have already conducted awareness drives to make people understand the concept and utilise the facility. Adequate provision of drinking water and toilets have also been made. However, we have decided to lodge males and females separately,” he added.

BMC commissioner Vishal Kumar Dev said: “We have already planned the three centres from the available resources. We have also written to the general administration department to provide minimum 10,000 square feet of land at each of the seven places across the city for a permanent solution to the problems of the homeless. As soon as the land is handed over to BMC, the construction of the night shelters will begin.’’

The state government in an affidavit before the Supreme Court on November 22 had said that night shelters would be ready in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri within a year. The court on December 16 asked the chief secretaries of different states to construct night shelters within three days.

The court in its directive on the issue had said: “From the space available for the people in night shelters, about 30 per cent will be kept reserved for women. There should be provisions for bed, toilet, water, locker, first aid, primary health care service and recreation. While there will be provision for community kitchen for the inmates, food will be available at Rs 10 per thali for males and Rs 5 for females.’’ The court added, “the state governments should make provision to include the inmates in the Antyodaya Anna Yojana.”

As per the classification of the cities, Bhubaneswar should have seven night shelters while Cuttack and Puri should have five and two shelters respectively.

A senior BMC official admitted that not only the railway station, Master Canteen area and Baramunda bus terminus, but also bus stops at several other places were being used by homeless for sleeping at night. “We have rooms for homeless in our Kalyan Mandaps and commuity centres, but most people are not aware about this,” he added.