Supreme Court directs center to audit the state fund given for urban shelters

The Supreme Court directed the Center to audit the state fund issued under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM), because more than Rs.2,000 crore have been issued in last 3 years there is no construct of night shelters for the homeless in urban areas.

The bench comprising of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta directed the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to audit and find out how the money was spent by the state governments. It also asked Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to take instructions from the Centre on how the auditing should be done.

The governments must ensure that welfare funds by the Centre (under Article 38 of the Constitution) were not used for any other purpose, as directed by the court. The court passed the order on the basis of a report filed by apex court-appointed panel headed by a former Delhi High Court judge. As per the report submitted by the committee, more than 90 percent of urban homeless had no roof over their heads as state governments had pathetically failed in setting up shelters despite the Centre giving huge funds under NULM which was launched in 2013.

The three-member committee, headed by Justice (Rtd) Kailash Gambhir said governments were not using the funds released by the Centre for construction of shelter homes and homeless people in urban centres were forced to live by the roadside, railway platforms and under flyovers.

The report further pointed out that the lack of shelter leads to unnatural death of many homeless people in extreme weather conditions like cold and heat waves as they are forced to live a life under the open sky. The Supreme Court has been looking into the implementation of NULM since 2013 and has repeatedly expressed concern over & quot an extremely unsatisfactory state of affairs on the ground& quot .