Hyderabad bans begging on city roads ahead of Ivanka Trump and Modi’s visits later this month
A total of 6,000 beggars are expected to be moved to rehabilitation centres across the Telangana capital in the next few weeks.
The Hyderabad Police on Tuesday issued a notification that bans begging on the city’s roads as it causes “nuisance and danger to vehicular traffic and pedestrians,” PTI reported.
The move comes ahead of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit from November 28 to 30. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, United States President Donald Trump’s daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump and several other foreign delegates are expected to attend the summit.
Nearly 400 beggars were moved to a rehabilitation centre on Wednesday, The Indian Express reported. A total of 6,000 beggars are expected to be moved in the next few weeks.
“As per the instructions of Police Commissioner M Mahender Reddy to make the city beggar-free, we have shifted those in our area to a rehabilitation centre,” Goshamahal area’s Assistant Commissioner of Police Narender Reddy was quoted as saying.
“Some beggars argued that we were taking their freedom to live anywhere they want, but we told them it was for their own good because they are going to the rehab centre where they will be taken care of,” another official said.
The Hyderabad Police had conducted a similar operation in 2000, when then United States President Bill Clinton visited the city.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner Mahendar Reddy’s prohibitory order, issued on Tuesday, came into effect at 6 am on Wednesday and will be in force till January 7. Reddy said it had come to his notice that many beggars were seeking alms in an indecent manner and were even employing children and handicapped people.
“Such acts are causing annoyance and awkwardness by exposing in an indecent manner...to induce them to give alms,” the notification read. “These acts are dangerous to the safety of the vehicular traffic and the public in general.”
Those violating the order can be punished under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant provisions of the Hyderabad City Police Act, the Telangana Prevention of Begging Act and the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, the notification said.