Kejriwal Announces Porta Cabins For Homeless In Delhi

Delhi government today announced a series of measures to provide roof to the homeless in biting cold sweeping the city and decided to replace all the night shelters being run from plastic tents with porta cabins within three days.

“An order has been passed to replace all night shelters with porta cabins within three days,” Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a statement released here.

He also directed SDMs to conduct inspections in their respective areas during night hours and ensure night shelters are being run properly. SDMs have also been asked to prepare a list of areas, where night shelters are required, by 4 January morning.

“During night-time inspections by our ministers Manish Sisodia and Rakhi Birla and AAP leader Sanjay Singh, it came to our knowledge that many people are sleeping under flyovers and other such places and not willing to move to night shelters. The government has decided to provide porta cabin- based shelter to them on the spot,” Kejriwal said.

The chief minister said the government is also seeking the assistance of all MLAs in ensuring better facilities at the night shelters.

“We are writing to MLAs saying their help is also needed in this matter and sending them a list of night shelters in their respective areas. We are appealing them to visit night shelters,” he said, adding, that the ministers and AAP volunteers will also assist them in this initiative.

Slamming the previous government over its failure to provide relief to the homeless, Kejriwal said a case has been going on in the Delhi High Court since 2010 but no actions were taken by the government for the welfare of the destitute.

Kejriwal said AAP volunteers, along with members of NGO Ashray Adhikar Abhiyan, would conduct a survey to locate places where porta cabins are required.

“Members of the NGO today met us and gave a list of 45 locations where the homeless are living. Tonight AAP volunteers and NGO members will visit those 45 locations and by tomorrow they would prepare a list of spots where porta cabins are required,” said Kejriwal.

Arvind Kejriwal Decides Not To Move Into House Allotted To Him

Kejriwal said that he will be requesting the government to look for a smaller house for him.

“My wells-wishers, friends and supporters called me up and asked me not to shift to that place. I even received SMS from the people in this regard. So I am not going to shift in those flats. I will request the government to look for a smaller house for me. Till then, I will work from my house in Ghaziabad,” he told reporters ahead of a crucial party meeting here.

Kejriwal has been allotted two five-bedroom duplex flats on Bhagwan Das Road one of which is to be used as his office.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs came down heavily on the Chief Minister in the Delhi Assembly on the issue saying his decision to accept two flats was in ‘total contradiction’ of AAP’s claim that it will practice austerity.

Delhi Chief Secretary DM Sapolia had earlier proposed a bungalow for Kejriwal as the Chief Minister. Kejriwal had refused his proposal.

Kejriwal and his six ministers had decided not to stay in any government bungalows but instead live in modest flats. Kejriwal has been living in a society flat in Kaushambi and had refused to shift to a ‘Type-Seven bungalow’ which he is entitled to after taking oath as the Chief Minister on December 28.

5-Year-Old Girl Raped In Delhi’s Mangolpuri

After large protests by her family and others, a five-year-old who was kept hostage and raped, allegedly by her neighbour, is likely to be moved soon to a hospital with better facilities.

The child is fighting for her life at an East Delhi hospital, where she was admitted on Wednesday, after she was found battered and bleeding. She had been missing for three days.  Her cries alerted some of her neighbours, who found her in one of the flats in her building.

The suspect, who allegedly did not give her water or food, and mutilated her, is missing.

“This is the first time that I have seen such barbarism with a five-year-old,” said R.K. Bansal, medical superintendent, Swami DayanandHospital.   He said injuries and bruises suggested that the rapist tried to strangle her and left her to die.

The child was reported missing on Monday.  When she was found, her father says the police offered him Rs. 2000 “to keep quiet”.  He said they advised him, “Thank God that she has been found alive.”

The police has said that it began searching for her as soon as her parents complained that she was missing.  A senior officer told that public parks in the East Delhi area were combed, but that the neighbour’s house was not searched because the child’s mother said she could not think of any suspects that might have kidnapped her daughter.

Since December, when the fatal gang-rape of a student on a Delhi bus stunned and incensed the country, the city’s police and government have vowed that no effort will be spared to protect women. But a slew of attacks, many of them against young girls, prove that despite the introduction of tougher anti-rape laws and pledges of better policing, little has changed for a city titled “the rape capital” of India.