As the spine-chilling cold wave sweeps across the state of Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has issued directives asking officers to ensure sufficient supply of blankets and bonfire and to actively monitor the arrangement of night shelters.
The Yogi government has bought 4,96,883 blankets for distribution in all 75 districts of the state, out of which more than 2,86,740 blankets have already been given to the needy. Besides, more than 1,220 night shelters with the capacity to accommodate 29,228 people have been established while 14,043 places have been identified for lighting bonfires across the state.
Chief Minister Yogi himself visited Gorakhpur to inspect the ground reality of night shelters.
Following the chief minister’s instructions, the 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 of the facility.
Distribution of relief materials like blankets is being done continuously through public representatives like local MP, MLAs, civic body chairman.
Attention is also being paid to maintaining cleanliness and sanitation at all the night shelters in line with the chief minister’s directive. The local administration is making arrangements for sanitisation to prevent the novel coronavirus infection. Arrangements of quilts, blankets, mattresses and pillows have been made at all the permanent and temporary night shelters while officers are monitoring their requirements from time to time and also addressing them. Separate arrangements are being made for families at night shelters.
As the distribution of blankets continues across the state, a maximum number of 16,379 blankets have been distributed in Hardoi so far, followed by 9,894 in Prayagraj. For Kashi, 10,988 blankets have been purchased out of which over 7,065 blankets have been distributed. In Ayodhya, 4,320 needy people have received blankets so far.
Currently, 1,029 people are staying in night shelters in Kanpur Nagar and 1,962 in Lucknow while in Prayagraj arrangements have been made for 1,228 people in the night shelter opened by the government. In Aligarh, arrangements have been made to accommodate 954 destitute 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 Buddha 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, 283 in Mau, 262 in Saharanpur, 256 in Moradabad, 255 in Shahjahanpur, 252 in Ghazipur, 252 in Jaunpur. Bonfires are lit daily at 233 places in Sitapur.