GHMC To Make A Hyderabad "Beggar-Free" City

In a critical move towards fulfilling Hyderabad's longstanding dream of becoming a "beggar-free" city, GHMC Commissioner Lokesh Kumar directed the police and the revenue department officials to furnish reports on the presence of beggars on the city's main roads and at important junctions and places of worship.

At the City Coordination Committee meeting held last week, the Commissioner directed the officials to undertake the study so that steps could be taken to provide skill development training to the able-bodied beggars in order to enable them to lead lives of dignity, and so that the aged and disabled beggars could also be identified and accommodated in shelters spread across Hyderabad.

"Please undertake a study to identify the beggars in the city at the earliest. This will enable us to provide training to healthy and fit persons so that they can take up self-employment programs, and to provide rehabilitation at shelter homes spread across the city to the others," he reportedly said.

Kumar also appealed to the citizens of Hyderabad to share information about beggars at different junctions, religious places and other locations to ensure the success of the data collection exercise.

Apart from this, matters of pedestrian safety and pending road repairs were also discussed at the meeting.

Officials from the Cyberabad and Rachakonda police, the TSSPDCL, the HMDA and the revenue department participated in the meeting.

If one looks back at the past policies implemented to address the issue, the state government of undivided Andhra Pradesh had enacted a legislation nearly 43 years ago, in 1977, banning begging in the state. Yet, the legislation could not be executed on the ground level despite the assurances made by several ministers and other authorities many times over the years.