Asha Kiran shelter home: Transfer of inmates to nursing school begins

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi, in a bid to reduce overcrowding at the Asha Kiran shelter home for the intellectually challenged, has initiated the process of transferring around 200 inmates from the Rohini facility to a school of nursing in Narela, officials aware of the matter said on Wednesday.
In addition, 10 female inmates are expected to be shifted to a dormitory at the Asha Jyoti Home at the Nirmal Chhaya Complex in Hari Nagar , while 40 female inmates suffering from mild and moderate cases will be moved to the Shahzada Bagh FRRO centre, the officials said.
The Asha Kiran facility was set up in 1989 with a capacity to accommodate 350 people, which was later increased to 570. However, the shelter home currently has 928 inmates, and has been involved in a series of controversies — according to a report submitted by the social welfare secretary to the lieutenant governor on August 2, 28 inmates have allegedly died at Asha Kiran since January this year, including 14 in July alone.
The Delhi high court on Monday directed the MCD commissioner to hand over one of its buildings in the nursing school to the social welfare department so that inmates of the shelter home may be shifted there.
A senior MCD official said the civic body will give the nursing school to the Delhi government-run facility on a monthly licence fee basis, and the rent rates will later be finalised by the corporation’s standing committee and house of councillors.
“The payment according to the rent agreement will be recovered later from the Delhi social welfare department. Meanwhile, the work to clean up the building complex and improve its accessibility will also need to be undertaken,” the official said.
The nursing home complex was developed by the erstwhile North MCD in April 2014 at a cost of ₹9.10 crore, but has remained underutilised since.
A second MCD official said the civic body’s engineering department has been asked to assess the situation, and submit a report on Friday, following which the corporation’s hospital administration department will submit its opinion.
Meanwhile, officials with the Delhi government’s education department said that they will post 15 teachers at Asha Kiran, including special educators, vocational instructors, and music teachers, to fill vacancies at the shelter home.