The Supreme Court has ordered the state to submit details of facilities for providing housing to homeless people during winter.
A bench of justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan said the state governments should file their affidavits specifying these details within two weeks without fail.
The Supreme Court requested Attorney General R. Venkataramani to assist in the matter and suggested the authorities to take help from Corporate Social Responsibility.
“You can encourage,” the bench said, “there should be corporates willing to help”.
The Supreme Court is hearing a case on the right of homeless people to shelter in urban areas.
During the hearing, an advocate appearing for the petitioners said that the state governments were asked to apprise the bench about the facilities available to the homeless people apart from their respective winter work schemes.
The hearing was held two weeks later.
While hearing the case on December 3, the Supreme Court sought details from the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) about the facilities available to homeless people in the national capital.
“We are concerned. We are on the eve of a very cold winter,” the bench observed.
The Supreme Court asked the DUSIB to provide details of the number of people who can stay in shelter homes and estimates of those who need such facilities.
The bench then said that if there is any shortfall in available facilities, DUSIB will inform how it proposes to deal with it.