By IANS,
New Delhi : After facing the ire of the Delhi High Court, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) Wednesday filed an affidavit stating it had zeroed on three places in the capital for constructing shelters for mentally ill people who are found abandoned on the streets.
Filing a affidavit before a division bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ajit Bharihoke, DDA submitted it had zeroed on Narela, Dwarka and Rohini for constructing the shelters.
DDA has to build seven such shelters in the capital amongst the 18 that are proposed.
The court after going through the affidavit asked the DDA to quickly comply with the orders and posted the matter for Aug 6.
The shelters are to be opened in all the nine districts of the capital.
On the last date of hearing the court had pulled up the DDA for the slow pace of work and expressed surprise over the fact that even the possession of the these seven proposed shelters was not with the social welfare department.
The court had also directed the police to amend the present training module and add a chapter relating to the handling of mentally ill people.
The court also mooted the idea of sensitising magistrates to the nature of such people.
The court’s observation came after a petition referred to a former model, Gitanjali Nagpal, who was found begging on the streets of the capital.
The bench was hearing a public suit by a Delhi University law student, Pratibha Chopra, drawing the court’s attention towards the plight of mentally ill people in the capital.
The petitioner referred to Nagpal’s case and said there were more than 2,500 women in Delhi who are mentally ill and were not receiving any aid from the government, which had led to their exploitation.
Nagpal, 32, who once walked the ramp for top designers, was last year found begging at a market in south Delhi. The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) took her to the VIMHANS hospital, where doctors diagnosed her to be suffering from fear psychosis.