Delhi LG transfers DUSIB CEO K. Mahesh after night shelter visit

New Delhi: Delhi Lt Governor V.K. Saxena has transferred Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) CEO K. Mahesh, shunting him to the UTCS as Special Director, while contemplating further action against him for dereliction of duties.

Secretary, Social Welfare, Garima Gupta was given charge of the DUSIB.

The development on Monday night came following the LG's visit to Night Shelters run by DUSIB at ISBT and Hanuman Mandir, on the night of December 23 where it was found that, while all the shelters had a total capacity of only about 600 beds, there were thousands who were forced to sleep on the pavements in bitter cold.

Moreover, the LG during his visit, had also flagged the issue of inadequate sanitary conditions for the occupants, as indeed for other homeless, forced to reside on streets under the open sky. Due to severe lack of toilet facilities attached to the night shelters, the occupants and others were forced to defecate in the open, mostly on the adjacent Yamuna bank.

Apart from this, there were no enclosures or facilities for the people, many of them women to have a bath, before going everyday to earn their livelihoods, that often involved works that soils the body. It is the responsibility of the DUSIB to provide toilets and other sanitary facilities at such locations.

Mahesh, who has been CEO of the DUSIB) since May 31, 2022 had been tasked in the month of June with the responsibility of providing adequate temporary toilet facilities to the slum dwellers at Jailorwala Bagh, adjacent to the DDA land where the ambitious world class nursery project - Vaishnavi, is being developed as per directions of the LG, immediately after he took over, said the LG Secretariat.

It added that despite the passage of almost 6 months, the DUSIB had failed to provide such facilities, that apart from causing immense hardship to the slum dwellers, also resulted in the nursery project not moving as per schedule.

The residents of the neighbouring slum cluster, in absence of toilets to be provided by the DUSIB, are forced to defecate in the open on the nearby railway track or on the land, where the nursery is being developed.

Consistent dereliction of duties by Mahesh, despite clear directions from the LG had resulted in the prestigious nursery project getting delayed by over 3 months, claimed the LG Secretariat.