Control room for monitoring night shelters, toilet complexes in Delhi

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) on Monday said it has launched an integrated control room for monitoring its night shelters and toilet complexes following complaints regarding their “poor maintenance”.

The centralised control room will be functional round the clock and will be manned by eight officials, it said.“People can register their complaints over phone call, text messages or email. Directions have been given to DUSIB officials in 12 divisions to get the problems fixed. The engineers concerned after taking remedial action will upload time-stamped and geo-tagged picture,” an official said.

DUSIB provides seven basic services to slum dwellers in 675 listed slums in the city. “Amongst the services, 673 Jan Suvidha complexes containing 22,397 toilets are used by nearly 25 lakh people,” it said.
The board said the helpline number was launched as most slum-dwellers “hesitate” to report problems physically and that they could now register their grievances online many have access to phones.

“This indirect mode of registering complaints will encourage slum dwellers to flag the problems, particularly when the occupancy at the night shelters increases during the winters,” the statement said.