`1 lakh a day to catch 3 beggars
The Delhi government appears to have missed the Games deadline to rid the city of beggars. The prominent places in the city still show beggars well etched in against the much-hyped plan to make the city free of beggars before the Games.
Though the Delhi government had approached various state governments to send beggars back home in a kind of rehabilitation, the plan did not move any further.
“We did not get any positive response from the state governments. We are not sending beggars to any of the state and are carrying out the routine operations to deal with the issue,” said social welfare department director S.C. Dikshit, who also denied that the city government is rounding up beggars and keeping them at any place.
Sources said the government in its routine operations is catching about three beggars a day on an average, while the whole cost to carry out the drive comes to about `1 lakh a day.
Interestingly, about 150 beggars were seen crowding the Hanuman temple near the Connaught Place late Tuesday evening. They reportedly protested against forced eviction, though senior officials expressed having no information of any about the incident.
“We are not extraordinary to deal with the issue of beggars. What we are doing is an ongoing continuous drive... All reports that we are hounding them up to place them at a secluded places are wrong,” added Mr Dikshit.
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