Admin says those gathered on Yamuna plains were local homeless not migrants

While some of whom were later shifted to various shelter homes by local authorities, others continued to take shelter under a flyover on the banks of the Yamuna on Thursday as well.

A day after 700 people had gathered on the Yamuna floodplains in search of shelter, the district administration said they were not migrant workers but homeless people who remain in that area, especially during summer.

People wait in lines on the banks of Yamuna River. (Bloomberg)

While some of whom were later shifted to various shelter homes by local authorities, others continued to take shelter under a flyover on the banks of the Yamuna on Thursday as well. The local authorities had swung into action after several media outlets ran a photo showing hundreds of people under a flyover on Yamuna floodplains.

District magistrate (Central) Nidhi Srivastava said nearly 3,000 people have been relocated from Yamuna Pushta and Chandni Chowk. “They are not migrant workers but mostly the homeless who remain in the surrounding areas of different shelter homes. They move in groups and during the lockdown, most of them congregated near the Yamuna to carry out their daily needs (bathing, washing etc.) When they came to know that they were being watched, many of them moved to Chandni Chowk area,” Srivastava said.

She also suggested that many of the homeless abused substances. “Around 18 shelters across different districts have been set up for them. Apart from providing food and shelter, the government will soon introduce rehabilitation facilities in these shelters for patients of substance abuse,” Srivastava said.

Bipin Rai, member, DUSIB, which is the nodal agency for shelters, however, said many of those seen in pictures and videos put out by media outlets were those who live in rented rooms and railway sheds nearby. “Since they did not have a proper home, they came out to the floodplains, which is cooler than other areas during the day. We have shifted most of these people,” he said.

Social activists, who had visited the floodplains, did not agree with the administration. “I had visited Yamuna Pushta on Wednesday. Not all of them could be local homeless. The place is close to the Kashmere Gate bus terminal and has two railway stations in the vicinity, which is the reason why they gathered on the floodplains, since they had nowhere else to go,” Indu Prakash Singh, member of the Supreme Court-appointed state-level shelter monitoring committee, said.