Mumbai: Byculla hostel’s blind inmates left to fend for themselves on streets

The Hostel for Working Blind Men in Byculla has permanently evicted all its inmates claiming paucity of funds However the nowdisplaced occupants and an activist who is fighting for their cause claim that they were ldquothrown out fraudulentlyrdquo Since June when the hostel was closed owing to the pandemic several inmates had returned to their hometowns or were staying with their family in the city while some took shelter on the footpathYou are instructed to kindly vacate the hostel premiseshelliptill further notification to restart normal activities from the authoritiesrdquo the June 26 2020 communication had stated However the hostel run by The Salvation Army never reopened Instead the administration sent a letter on January 5 informing more than 40 men that what used to be their home once has been shut down permanentlyThe letter undersigned by Lt Col General G Y Pathare the secretary for Program Admin at The Salvation Army reached the inmates only on January 14 Interestingly the hostel administration had met a few hostellers a day after sending the letter but made no mention about either the letter or the closureAt the January 6 meeting with the inmates and activist Cyril Dara Pathare had asked them to write a letter requesting them to reopen The very next day 25 hostellers undersigned a letter and gave it to the administrationSomething doesnt add upMohammad Javed Sheikh 39 who works at a nationalised bank and was living at the hostel since 2004 told midday ldquoWhen we reached the hostel on January 6 the watchman shut the gates and said the authorities were away on a holiday But when we didnt budge some seniors came out and invited us in They asked us to write a letter requesting them to reopen stating that we are in trouble and cannot find accommodation anywhere else First of all how are blind people supposed to write a letter Still we managed But on January 14 I received a letter stating that the hostel has been shut down because of lsquounavoidable circumstancesrsquo and the management asked us to make our own arrangementshellip There is something that doesnrsquot add upActivist Cyril Dara with Javed Sheikh at the Salvation Armys Hostel for Working Blind Men in Byculla on January 5 PicPradeep DhivarShamsher Mansoor Alam Sheikh 35 asked ldquoIf the decision to permanently shut down the hostel was already taken then why wasnrsquot the letter handed over to us directly when we met them on January 6 Why were we asked to write the letter He said This is downright cheatingA different motiveDara said ldquoThe hostel has thrown out these people fraudulently First they evicted them taking advantage of the pandemic and then announced the permanent closure without giving any concrete reason We knew the hostel had funding problemshellipbut now it looks like there was a different motiverdquoSpeaking with midday Pathare said ldquoThe hostel was closed temporarily at firsthellipbut later the management decided to shut it permanently because we could not manage enough funds to keep it runningrdquo He also confirmed the January 6 meeting with the hostellers Asked why the inmates were not informed about the closure and the letter on January 6 he said I cannot speak on the matter