The government has been pulling out all the stops to make the prestigious Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) a success, while the city police have a task to complete, to make Hyderabad beggar-free.
In doing so, they have reportedly been picking up several persons who they presume to be beggars, including daily-wage earners and visitors to the city.
The city police have declared begging an offence and have banned people from seeking alms. They have also allegedly rounded up people who were not beggars and put them in confinement at Anand Ashram on the premises of Chanchalguda prison for the next two months.
However, some of those lodged at Anand Ashram claimed that they were not beggars. “After seeking blessings of lord Sai Baba at Chaderghat temple, I was eating prasadam outside the premises. All of a sudden, a group of policemen picked me up stating they will provide lunch for that afternoon and lodged me in the jail,” said a 35-year-old daily-wage earner, who has been locked-up at Anand Ashram for the past one week.
A person from Kurnool, who claims to be a weaver by profession, said he had come to the city to meet one of his friends, but was taken away from Secunderabad railway station by the police who sent him to the Ashram.
“They have kept me here for no reason. I have a family who depend on my earnings. Once I am out of this place, I will never come to Telangana again,” he said seeking anonymity.
Most of the inmates at Anand Ashram lamented that the police curbed their freedom to live anywhere. Interestingly, those who were seen having lunch at the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s ₹5 a meal centres too were alleged to have been whisked away.
“We planned this initiative to rehabilitate beggars three months ago and is now being done keeping the GES in view. There are 87 beggars at the Ashram,” said V.K. Singh, Director-General of Prisons and Correctional Services.
Confirming that some of the persons lodged at the Ashram were not beggars by profession, a senior officer in the Prisons Department said several professional beggars have moved out of the city fearing arrest and the police were now targeting ‘poor-looking’ people and sending them to us.
