ULBs In Odisha Directed To Intensify Patrolling To Help Homeless Persons In Streets

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has directed the urban local bodies (ULBs) to ensure that no needy person is left abandoned in the streets of their areas.

The government direction was issued following an urgent meeting of the teams of “Shelter for Urban Home” (SUH) of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC), state SUH and non-government organisation OPUS, which is working in this field, on Sunday. The government has created SUH across the state to provide shelter to homeless and abandoned people in urban areas.

The meeting was convened after it was observed that some people were sleeping on footpath in CMC area. Sarada Prasad Panda, joint secretary, Housing and Urban Development department and Director, State Urban Development Agency (SUDA) chaired the meeting held in the conference hall of SUDA.

The matter was discussed in details and instructions were issued to all ULBs to activate their patrolling team and OPUS, engage the community partner Mission Shakti SHG and ensure that they are linked to nearest SUH.

The CMC was directed to come up with an action plan on the issue by June 21. It should start taking steps from today and the government would bear the cost implication, the CMC was told.

Deputy Commissioner, CMC, Swetapadma Satpathy and her team, state SUH team and NGOs working in partnership with HU&D department attended the meeting.