Agra, Jan 22 (IANS) With the temperature dropping each day and the city of the Taj Mahal enveloped in a thick blanket of fog for the past week, night shelters here are packed to capacity. An NGO that has for many years been sheltering those left out in the cold is now stepping up its effort.

'Last night some people, desperate and shivering, had to beat the cold by sitting outside near a bonfire to drive away the chill,' Bankey Lal Maheshwari, who has been running the Srinathji Nishulk Jal Sewa network, told IANS.

While official agencies have been dragging their feet citing a resource crunch for not providing shelter to those without a home, voluntary groups have risen to the occasion.

A dozen shelters, known as rain baseras, have come up across the city where the homeless can sleep in this harsh winter. At some shelters like those run by voluntary agency Srinathji Nishulk Jal Sewa, apart from beds and clean quilts, there is the additional attraction of a bonfire and some jaggery and gram mix to eat. On Basant Panchami (the festival of spring) they distributed kheer.

'Earlier we used to distribute blankets to the needy but we found that many of the beneficiaries were selling them,' said Maheshwari, who has been running the Srinathji network of rain baseras and water huts in Agra for 25 years now.

'At the night shelters for around three months people get free beds, clean sheets and quilts,' Maheshwari said.

'Each shelter caters to at least 50 people. Those near the mental hospital and the S.N. Medical College can accommodate up to 100 guests,' he added. Most baseras are simple, make-shift tented accommodation. But the one in the new emergency ward of the S.N. Medical College is a concrete structure that can accommodate more than 100.

'Ask a person without shelter in this biting cold. For him anything is good enough,' says Surendra Sharma of Hotel Goverdhan.

M.C. Gupta, a physician widely respected in Agra, said: 'Concern for such small needs of ordinary people rarely ever bothered our decision makers.'

Father John Farreira, principal of St. Peter's College, who was chief guest at the opening of one such shelter, told IANS: 'Such acts of mercy and benevolence go a long way in not only helping the poor and the needy but also in enriching and ennobling ourselves.'

The Srinathji network is funded by small donors. 'Ours is not a registered body. We have no constitution, no formal structure. We sustain a network of rain baseras in winter and water huts in summer,' Maheshwari said.

Rajan Kishore, a close associate of Maheshwari, said: 'Many donors send cheques, money orders and cash.'

Maheshwari added that the cost of cow-dung cakes and firewood had gone up steeply this winter, but efforts were on to ensure that bonfires continued to be lit at least till Jan 26.

(Brij Khandelwal can be contacted at brij.k@ians.in)