Addressing a press conference at the party office, Delhi BJP chief said, “It is a matter of regret that due to the callous criminal neglect of AAP government, every year hundreds of homeless people in Delhi die due to cold on the streets.”
[Representational Photo]
The Delhi unit of the BJP on Friday launched a scathing attack on the Aam Aadmi Party government over reported deaths of homeless people in the national capital, saying it was due to the “criminal negligence” of the ruling dispensation.
Addressing a press conference at the party office, Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva said, “It is a matter of regret that due to the callous criminal neglect of Delhi government and its DUSIB (Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board), every year hundreds of homeless people in Delhi die due to cold on the streets. 779 people died in 2018-19, 749 in 2019-20, despite Covid 436 died in 2020-21 and 545 in 2021-22 due to cold on the roads of the national capital.”
He claimed that every year, despite repeated rebukes from the court and reports in the newspapers, the Delhi government is not providing food funds to the night shelters of the national capital.
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Sachdeva said that the Delhi government has to implement the Winter Action Plan from November 15, under which the basic task is to take the homeless to a safe place so that they do not get sick in the cold, but “due to the negligence of the Kejriwal government, today it is December 15 but 90 per cent of permanent and temporary night shelters are in bad condition.”
He claimed that only tents have been put up in the name of temporary shelters.
“Not even permanent night shelters have full mattresses and beds, nor are there provisions for mandatory tea and biscuits. The result of all this is that in the last one month, information about 203 unclaimed deaths on the streets of Delhi is available through Delhi Police, out of which 185 have no signs of disease or injury in their bodies, generally we can say that these 185 deaths occurred due to cold,” he said.
He also accused that the ruling dispensation is not only harassing the homeless but is also harassing the managers and staff running night shelters for the homeless as they are not getting their salaries for four months.
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