Night shelter packed up, homeless left in the lurch

The chill is still here but the authorities seem to think otherwise. On Thursday, when the minimum temperature was 5.6 degrees, two degrees below normal, a night shelter for the homeless at Mori Gate was packed to the brim.

The chill is still here but the authorities seem to think otherwise. On Thursday, when the minimum temperature was 5.6 degrees, two degrees below normal, a night shelter for the homeless at Mori Gate was packed to the brim.

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"The officials at the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) have been trying to take down one of the two temporary shelters at Mori Gate. I was not present at the site on Thursday and they came and took down one shelter. The two shelters housed 40 people. Now that one is gone, how will we accommodate the remaining 20?" said Ashok Pandey, who runs the Mori Gate shelter.

According to Pandey, DUSIB officials said one shelter was removed as it had no approval.

"They said they were authorised to put up only one shelter at the site. Why did they not think about this while putting them up? Now that the people have started using the night shelter, they decide to remove it despite the low temperature," Pandey said.

DUSIB, however, denied any information about the packing off of the shelter.

"As per our information, we have not removed any shelter but we will verify to be sure," said a senior DUSIB official. There a total of 150 shelters.