New Delhi, Dec 25 (IANS) The occupants of a temporary night shelter who were rendered homeless after the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) demolished the structure had been “informed” about the removal through a notice, Delhi Mayor Kanwar Sain said Friday.
“The occupants were informed that the night shelter would be removed and a notice was served for this purpose. We are well aware of the problem that people face in winter and we would not render anyone homeless without reason,” Sain told IANS.

A temporary night shelter at Pusa Road in the capital was removed by the MCD Tuesday as part of the beautification drive for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. As a result, seeing through the chilly nights has become an everyday struggle for the homeless who had taken refuge in the shelter.

Braving the plummeting temperatures, men, women, children, old and the ill alike have been lighting small bonfires out of scrap material and on the roadside, in a feeble attempt to shield themselves from the cold.

Shocked at the MCD action, homemaker Namita Nagpal said: “It’s always the poor, the lowest in the ladder who suffer the most. In this case too, it’s the poor who are suffering for the sake of so-called development.”

Sain, however, said alternate arrangements had been made for those who had been taking refuge in the night shelter.

“An alternate arrangement has been made for the people who used to take refuge in the Pusa Road night shelter,” he said.

Delhi has a mere 40 night shelters - 25 run by the MCD and another 15 temporary structures run by the Delhi government - for roughly 100,000 homeless people.

MCD spokesperson Deep Mathur said the Pusa Road roundabout from where the night shelter was removed will be developed by the engineering and the horticulture departments for the Commonwealth Games.