Survey on homeless on the card, 263 beggars in State
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, May 20 2018:
As directed by the Ministry of Urban Development, a survey would be conducted on the number of homeless people living within the jurisdictions of 27 urban local bodies of the State.
Officials of MAHUD Department recently held a meeting on the proposed survey with Chairpersons and Councillors of the 27 urban local bodies.
After minute deliberation, the meeting decided to entrust the task of surveying homeless people to a third party, informed a source.
The survey would be supervised by a three-member committee and a retired officer not below the rank of Government of India's Secretary would be inducted as its chairman.
Representative of an NGO working in the field (urban poverty) and Secretary of Urban Development Department would be appointed as members of the committee.
However, there is not a single retired officer of the Government of India who held the post of Secretary in the State.
As such, the State Government has already enquired the Ministry of Urban Development if a retired Principal Secretary can be appointed as the committee's chairman.
After receiving an affirmative reply from the Ministry, the State Government has recommended the name of retired IAS officer BB Sharma and it is awaiting the Ministry's approval, said the source.
Once the Ministry's approval is received, a third party would be entrusted to carry out the survey.
It is reported that the State Government has been considering to entrust the same task to Anthropology Department, Manipur University.
According to the Government of India's definition, homeless persons include persons who do not have a house, either self-owned or rented but instead live and sleep on pavements, at parks, railway stations and places of worship, outside shops and factories, at construction sites, under bridges and other places under the open sky or places unfit for human habitation.
Any person who does not have a house in one State but has one in another State cannot be called homeless.
Most of the people seen on streets and roads in the State are either lunatics or mentally unsound and what they need is treatment at mental hospital.
On the other hand, there are 236 beggars in the State as per the 2011 Census data and there is a strong possibility that this figure might have gone up during the past six/ seven years as many jobless non-locals come to the State regularly, further said the source.