Delhi Urban Development (UD) Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Wednesday directed the CEO of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) to take appropriate action against three senior officers for not complying with his orders of inspecting shelter homes.

On June 10 and June 11, Delhi Minister directed the CEO of DUSIB, to assign three senior officers, to conduct surprise inspections of at least five homeless shelters each day and submit the list of deficiencies found to him by Tuesday.

"Taking into account the prevailing heat wave, I had given verbal instructions to the CEO regarding appropriate arrangements in homeless shelters. Later on June 10 had flagged news stories regarding issues with night shelters. On June 11, I had given written directions to the CEO, DUSIB, to assign three senior officers to do surprise inspections of at least five homeless Shelters. The three officers namely S.K. Singh, P.K. Jha and Fonia were supposed to inspect these shelters and submit the list of deficiencies found to the undersigned on June 18," Bharadwaj said.

The Officers were instructed to ensure arrangements are made for Water dispensers and Water based air coolers in Shelter homes. He further stated that while he had expected to receive the report of atleast 90 shelter homes by Tuesday but no such report has been received.

"Therefore, you are directed to take appropriate action against the officers for not complying with the directions," he stated in a letter to the CEO of DUSIB, adding that the night shelters are managed by private agencies and are paid for their services.

"In the first place, agencies should provide the services without fail. However, if services are not being provided and officers are complacent, then senior officers are expected to do surprise checks and identify the deficiencies. This is to ensure accountability of the agencies as well as officers of DUSIB," he said adding that the non-receipt of reports from the senior most officers of DUSIB is not acceptable.