Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Corporation opens shelter for destitutes

Special Correspondent

To be screened for HIV and other diseases

A PLACE TO REST: The beneficiaries of the Coimbatore Corporation's destitute shelter opened at R. S. Puram on Tuesday. - Photo: S. Siva Saravanan

COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore Corporation on Tuesday opened a shelter for destitutes who lived on the streets. A Corporation school building in disuse opposite the music college in R.S. Puram has been converted into a shelter.

This is seen as a facility that will help check abuse of these people by anti-social elements and also help them lead a clean life. It has three toilets and as many bathrooms and also a kitchen.

Dinner to be provided

Supper will be given free of cost by a non-Governmental organisation that will also maintain the shelter.

"The aim is to provide these people a clean, healthy shelter.

They can use the place to rest at night," the Corporation Commissioner, Anil Meshram, said. As these people ate bad food amid unhygienic conditions, they would now be provided with at least one nutritious meal a day.

On why the Corporation decided to provide such a shelter, he said: "If we do not think of the poor, who else will? Why not we provide such a facility when we have the resources."

The Commissioner was clear that the civic body would not confine these people to the shelter. "The meal is expected to force them to come."

The Corporation was aware that forcing those people to remain in a shelter throughout the day would not work when they were used to living on the streets. "Now, they can go wherever they want during the day and return at night."

Mr. Meshram said that the Corporation also planned to screen them for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other diseases.

The Corporation along with Sevalayam, an NGO, Marudham Developers and Mayflower Property Promoters has spent Rs. 5.5 lakhs on the project. Sevalayam has volunteered to cook for the destitutes while Kannan Department Stores will provide the groceries.

A milestone

The Collector, S. Kosalaraman, said that the initiative was a "milestone" in the Corporation's history. The Mayor, T. Malaravan, said through the effort the civic body hoped to reach to the hitherto marginalised section of the society. It would also help the Corporation keep the bus stand and other public places clean.

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