At 6°C, city wakes up to coldest morning of year
The much-awaited Delhi winter is finally here. On Wednesday, Delhiites witnessed the coldest morning of the season so far, as the temperature fell to 6.4 degrees, 2 degrees below normal temperature.
The much-awaited Delhi winter is finally here. On Wednesday, Delhiites witnessed the coldest morning of the season so far, as the temperature fell to 6.4 degrees, 2 degrees below normal temperature.
The maximum temperature was recorded at 22.4 degrees Celsius, one degree below normal. Cold winds throughout the day made for an even colder Wednesday than what the temperatures indicated.
Thursday is expected to be colder as the Met department has predicted a minimum temperature of 6 degrees and a maximum of 23 degrees Celsius. “There can be shallow fog in the morning, but nothing that will disturb the traffic situation. Dense fog is set to make a re-entry only after the 20th of this month,” said a senior Met official.
This year, the dip in temperature has been very sudden as the minimum temperature last year was recorded above 15 degrees Celsius. In December last year, the minimum temperature had come down to 5.2 degrees Celsius on the 22nd of the month.
In the past decade, the lowest minimum for the month was recorded on December 12, 2005, when the mercury recorded 3.3 degrees Celsius while the highest maximum was 28.4 degrees on December 15, 2003. The record for the lowest minimum for the month of December is 1.1 degree Celsius recorded in 1945.
Only 30% of homeless night shelters are occupied: Govt
new delhi: A day after the high court directed the Delhi Government to set up a night shelter for every one lakh homeless population across the city, the government has said that the existing shelters have been witnessing very low occupancy.
A meeting, was held to chalk out an action plan and discuss the directions of the High Court, which was chaired by Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit. “Running shelters throughout the year is not a practical solution. The 64-odd shelters which have been running all this while have witnessed only 30 per cent occupancy,” said a senior Delhi government official.
According to sources, the Delhi government has asked the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board to file a petition in the Supreme Court, giving their views on the entire issue. “If we make temporary shelters a regular feature, people will start encroaching upon the area. Regulating them will also become a huge problem. Not all areas in the city need homeless shelters,” added the official.
Officials further stated that contrary to the figures stated by the NGOs that run homeless shelters in the city — which stands at 1.5 lakh — there are only 55,000 homeless in the city.
“If we start putting up temporary shelters, tent mafia will start misusing it. Also, chances of such shelters catching fire will also rise. Last year ,18 such fire incidents had taken place,” added the official.