The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has set up 12 shelter homes for the homeless, including four for women, in various points in Hyderabad. These shelters will be maintained by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that have volunteered to help. Facilities such as water, electricity, toilets, cots, beds, bed sheets, blankets, pillows and kitchen utensils have been arranged in each shelter, said GHMC.
The police and NGOs will help in identifying the persons suffering in cold and shift them to shelters. While the capacity of these shelters is 865, so far 231 persons have been shifted to these shelters homes. Community halls and hospitals like Osmania General Hospital, Government Maternity Hospital and Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, among others, have been converted into shelter homes. The facilities in the hospital have been functional since 2018. They were constructed under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission. The space under the Begumpet and RK Puram bridge, too, has been converted into a shelter home.
Each shelter home is tied up with a local Primary Health Center/Urban Health Center/Basthi Dawakhanas for regular health check-ups of its residents, GHMC said. The health team will regularly visit the shelter homes for providing medicines and shift the residents to super-speciality hospitals, if they require medical attention. In case anyone is suffering from mental health problems, they will be referred to the Institute of Mental Health in Erragadda, Hyderabad.
The GHMC also said they will try to procure the birth certificates, Aadhaar cards, voter ID cards, bank accounts and pensions under Aasara pension scheme for the people who have been rescued.
Hyderabad has been witnessing cold conditions for the past two weeks. The minimum temperature recorded on Tuesday was 18.9 degree Celsius, according to the Meteorological Department. In Hyderabad, Kukkatpally recorded the lowest minimum temperature of 18.3 degree Celsius, followed by Chandrayangutta and Hayathnagar at 19.4 degree Celsius, as per the Telangana State Development Planning Society.