There is a talk again, after a long time, about making Hyderabad a beggar-free city. Now, it is the turn of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner Lokesh Kumar to refer to the beggar menace in the city.
At the City Coordination Committee meeting held last week, the Commissioner has directed the Police, Revenue and other department officials to furnish information to the GHMC about the beggars at the main roads, junctions, places of worship, etc., in the city so that steps could be taken to provide skill development training to able-bodied people and earning capacity, while the aged and others could be accommodated in shelter homes.
If the Commissioner could really implement the plan and make the city beggar-free, he deserves all compliments, particularly because of the fact that the problem is haunting the city for some decades, despite promises by Ministers, People’s Representatives, Mayor. Etc., that the menace will be ended within a time frame, but failed to do so.
If we go into the back ground, the State Government had enacted a legislation nearly 43 years ago, in 1977. Providing for ban on begging in the entire state and notified it. Yet, the Legislation remained only on paper, inspite of assurances by Ministers and other authorities from time to time. Not only the Act remained unimplemented, but even the High Court orders in a writ petition filed in 2006, also not implemented.
This journalist clearly remembers that when Teegala Krishnareddy (then in TDP) took over as City Mayor 18 years ago, during the TDP regime, he had announced at his first media meet that he would take all steps to eliminate beggar menace in the city “within One Year” . He, however, failed to fulfill the promise during his five years of term. Though Krishnareddy was in the TDP and considered very close to the then Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, he failed to persuade the Government to implement his plan and turn the city into a beggar-free one.
Let us hope that at least now, the GHMC Chief will be able to really implement his plans to ensure a beggar-free Hyderabad by end of this year 2021.