The directions were given recently by a bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Nitin Jamdar who went through the reports mentioning conditions of shelters for homeless citizens.
The reports of joint inspection of the shelter homes by NGOs and authorities conducted in February 2012 were relied upon by Homeless Collective in their petition praying that the state was not doing enough to provide shelter to the homeless.
"It appears from these reports that many of the shelters are not occupied. In order to ensure that homeless citizens come to know about the availability of such shelters, it would be in the fitness of things for all the authorities as well as NGOs to give wide publicity about the availability of shelter homes", the judges noted.
Maharashtra government counsel Birendra Saraf said the affidavit could not be filed on account of fire mishap at Mantralaya on June 20. However, the state would file an affidavit before the end of this month, he said.
Counsel for the petitioners, Gayatri Singh and Kranti L C, suggested the homeless people should be communicated through radio broadcasts and by conducting orientations with community leaders to make them aware about the locations of shelters.
The petitioners further submitted that the authorities should convene focus groups to spread information about the locations of homeless shelters. (More)
