As a spine-chilling cold wave sweeps across the state of Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is leaving no stone unturned to save the poor and the destitute from its severity. On the instructions of the Chief Minister, officers are constantly monitoring the entire arrangement of night shelters, blankets and bonfires.

The Yogi Government has bought a total of 49,6,883 blankets for distribution in all 75 districts of the state of which among more than 2,86,740 have already been given away to the needy.

Besides, more than 1,220 night shelters with a capacity to accommodate 29,228 people have been established while 14,043 places have been identified for lighting bonfires across the state and bonfires are being lit at more than 12,594 public places every day, officials here on Saturday said.

It is worth mentioning that on the chilly night of December, CM Yogi visited Gorakhpur to inspect the ground reality of night shelters.

Following the chief minister’s instructions, district magistrates and other officers are conducting surprise inspections of the night shelters to ensure that no one sleeps on streets in the inclement weather conditions and every needy avails the facility. Distribution of relief materials like blankets is being done continuously through public representatives like local MP, MLA, civic body chairman.

Attention is also being paid to maintaining cleanliness and sanitation at all the night shelters in line with the CM’s durective. The local administrations are making arrangements for sanitization to prevent the novel coronavirus.

Arrangements for quilts, blankets, mattresses and pillows have been made smoothly at all the permanent and temporary night shelters while officers are monitoring its requirements from time to time and also addressing them. Separate arrangements are being made for families at night shelters.

As distribution of blankets continues across the state, maximum number of 16379 blankets have been distributed in Hardoi so far, followed by 9894 in Prayagraj. For Kashi, 10988 blankets have been purchased of which over 7065 blankets have been distributed. In Ayodhya, 4320 needy people have received blankets so far.

Currently, 1029 people are staying in night shelters in Kanpur city and 1962 in Lucknow while in Prayagraj arrangements have been made for 1228 people in the night shelter built by the government. In Aligarh, arrangements have been made to accommodate 954 destitutes in the night shelter. A total of 916 night shelters have been set up in Varanasi, 893 in Ghaziabad, 840 in Kasganj, 748 in Gautam Budh Nagar. More than 660 people are staying in night shelters in Bareilly.

Furthermore, arrangements for bonfires have been made at 724 places in Lucknow, 505 in Aligarh, 429 in Prayagraj, 411 in Unnao, 402 in Bijnor, 370 in Hardoi, 306 in Meerut, 294 in Siddharthnagar and 283 in Mau, 262 in Saharanpur, 256 in Moradabad, 255 in Shahjahanpur, 252 in Ghazipur, 252 in Jaunpur 246. Bonfires are being lit daily at 233 places in Sitapur.