The Supreme Court directed the Delhi government to issue ration cards to homeless families and provide every card holder 10 litre kerosene and 15 kg grain at cheap rates.

A bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and K S Radhakrishnan also told the government to increase the number of night shelters from 17 to 24 and asked the Delhi Development Authority(DDA) to allot the land for these night shelters.

The apex court had earlier asked the government to provide shelter and food to lakhs of homeless people in view of severe cold wave conditions in the entire north India.

Later, the court also directed all the state governments to take immediate steps to provide night shelters and food to the homeless in view of increasing number of deaths due to biting cold.

All these families were to be given rations as being provided to the families in the BPL category.

UNI