Gujarat High Court seeks state, civic bodies' reply over poor infra for Urban homeless

The Gujarat High Court on Thursday sought a reply from the state government and municipal commissioners of Ahmedabad, Surat, Vado-dara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Jamnagar, and Gandhinagar, after public interest litigation (PIL) questioning the poor infrastructure in the state for the urban homeless came up for hearing.

A PIL, filed by Vishwas Bhamburkar, was taken up by the division bench of Acting Chief Justice AS Dave and Justice Biren Vaishnav. The bench directed the authorities to file their reply by January 8. Citing the report submitted by Justice Kailash Gambhir committee to the Supreme Court, the petitioner claimed that the population of urban homeless in the state is around 84,822 out of the total population of 6.25 crore.

He argued that despite the considerably high number of urban homeless in the state, there are only 101 urban shelters for the homeless having a capacity to accommodate just 6,430 persons.

He claimed that the remaining 78,392 urban homeless persons are forced to live on streets and footpaths and are in great danger of losing their lives in this extremely cold weather.

Bhamburkar has also argued before the court that despite there being a clear shortage of shelter homes, the state government is sitting idle on Rs 47.85 crore available for the purpose under central schemes. 
He also claimed that many of the municipal corporations in the state are devoid of any infrastructure for urban homeless in clear violation of central guidelines.

While providing details of each city, the petitioner claimed that the population of urban homeless in the city of Ahmedabad is around 12,318 and the number of shelters in the city is around 46, having a capacity to accommodate just 2,840 persons. Similarly, the population of urban homeless in Surat is around 36,144 and the number of shelters in the city is around 27, having a capacity to accommodate mere 1,278 persons. The petitioner has also claimed that many of the shelter homes in cities across the state have been shut down, but are still shown on the record.

Bhamburkar has prayed to the court to direct the state government to construct adequate facilities for the urban homeless; carry out an independent survey for their identification; and allow them to stay in public buildings such as government schools and community halls during winter, among others.