CHENNAI: “We are critically appreciative of the efforts taken by the Chennai Corporation towards sheltering the homeless,” said Sandeep Chachra, Supreme Court-appointed National Advisor on Homeless in Chennai on Wednesday.Sandeep Chachra, who is in the city for the five-day ‘Wall Street Campaign’ organised by Action Aid to bring dignity to the city’s homeless, met the Chennai Corporation Commissioner Dr D Karthikeyan on Wednesday.He said, “We have great expectations from Chennai to evolve into a model city for others in the country in terms of its commitment to sheltering its homeless.“ “Since Tamil Nadu’s social indicators are much better compared to other states, we certainly hope the Corporation works to build synergies with other stakeholders to take forward the momentum in sheltering the homeless,” he added.On Tuesday, he inspected some of the shelters established by the Corporation. He also said that the Chennai Corporaton had mapped the city’s homeless and had promised to take the number of shelters from the present six to 12 by October 31.Earlier, a Supreme Court directive to the Chennai Corporation ordered that 10 shelters be built by December 2010. As per the Chennai Corporation’s data, the city has 11,000 homeless, while the data from CMDA and Action Aid says 40,000.“Here, the challenge is not in building infrastructure, but actually in building the community supportive linkages, like health care, education, livelihood, entertainment and all the social security schemes offered by the government to the people. There is huge task ahead,” Chachra pointed out.
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