Tirupati: Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT) is about to launch a drive to turn Tirupati into a beggar-free city and find a permanent solution to the problem of begging.
MCT has kept a deadline for this drive and wants to clear the begging menace by December 10, as part of the Smart City project implementation.
According to a recent survey, there are around 2,500 to 3,000 beggars in both Tirupati and Tirumala, in which 72 per cent of the total was found to be fake beggars, who has an approximate annual income of '2 cr.
Apart from the fake ones, there are 28 per cent genuine people, who are forced to beg for money due to various issues. The civic authority is now facing a tough challenge to identify the genuine beggars out of the fake ones.
The real menace of begging can be seen near the Central bus station, railway station and local temples, especially at the footsteps of Alipiri in Tirupati.
In Tirumala, a bunch of fake beggars can be found in most of the busy places and the two trekking paths of Alipiri and Srivari Mettu. With the begging menace, scores of pilgrims and the denizens have been facing problems.
To curb the menace, MCT officials are getting ready to shift the real beggars to the civic body shelters, situated in the outskirts of Tirupati, without violating their rights.
MCT is planning to provide rehabilitation as per need that includes skill training, schooling to children of beggars and homeless, and to ensure food and shelter to them.
The Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) has already been running a night shelter for the homeless near Ramachandra Pushkarini at Parasla Street inside the city, where 45 men and five women were staying and were provided with free shelter and meals during nights.
In the year 2017, when a similar drive was launched, the civic body tried to shift the beggars to urban shelters, where they refused to stay.
Now, it is going to be a difficult task for the Civic body officials to shift the beggars from the city to night shelters as hundreds of them come to Tirupati from various parts of Southern India and settled here to earn money through begging.
Few of them have been addicted to liquor which denies entry to them into night shelters.
This is also one of the conditions preventing the beggars from staying here. Meanwhile, the government has sanctioned two-night shelters for Tirupati but only one-night shelter has been running due to non-availability of building.
However, the MCT has been appealing the denizens not to encourage the beggars, by giving money.
