The KMC has urged the city police to cross-check the details like citizenship, Aadhaar card and voter card of the rag-pickers. “If unidentified people stay in the city there could be a big problem of law and order.
Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim [file photo]
Focused on identifying outsiders, if any, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is now working on plans to identify the rag-pickers dwelling on the city’s footpaths and shift them to urban homeless shelters. According to KMC mayor Firhad Hakim, one of the major problems faced by the civic body is the encroachment of the footpaths by rag-pickers.
The KMC has urged the city police to cross-check the details like citizenship, Aadhaar card and voter card of the rag-pickers. “If unidentified people stay in the city there could be a big problem of law and order. Secondly, the city is getting littered and the rag-pickers have encroached pockets of the city at some places,” said the mayor.
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“The police will check if ragpickers are living here after coming from somewhere else. After checking the details, the police will then shift them to the urban homeless shelters. We are sending a letter to the commissioner of the city on the subject,” added Mr Hakim. Notably, the civic body has set up 12 urban homeless shelters in its limits.
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Despite arrangements of water, toilets and other amenities for the homeless, the rag-pickers run away from the shelters, underscored Mr Hakim. As pointed out by the minister for urban development and municipal affairs and housing department, the ragpickers litter the city footpath by dumping plastic bottles and other waste. The KMC has urged its solid waste management wing to set up a shed at Dhapa so that waste could be segregated.
The civic body has also decided to shift students from the six premises taken on rent to schools owned by the civic bodies. “It has been observed that there are no or very few students in schools having more teachers. As the premises are taken on rent, we are unable to do the repairing work without the permission of the landlord.
For their safety, the students of these schools would be shifted to those owned by the KMC. The premises taken on rent would be utilized for other works like storing vaccines or health centres,” added the mayor.
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