Rehabilitation centres for beggars in Telangana soon

The Prisons Department who launched the campaign to free Hyderabad City of beggars successfully is now planning to set up beggar rehabilitation centres in unused buildings of the district jails across Telangana.

Prisons and Correctional Services Director General VK Singh addressed the media on Monday where he announced that the proposal in this regard has already been sent to the state government and are hoping for a positive response.

The department which began the drive for rehabilitation of beggars in October 2017 set up ‘Anand Ashrams’ at the Chanchalguda and Cherlapally Central prisons.

Previously, the department offered Rs 500 to those who give information on beggars as a part of the rehabilitation programme, now it has been changed to Rs 1,000. So far, Rs 16,000 as rewards has been disbursed to those who gave information on beggars.

Mr Singh further informed that more than Rs 50 lakh has been spent for the programme by availing loans from the Prison Development Fund.

He shared that in order to take up the programme effectively across the state, a proposal was sent to the government to sanction Rs.3 crore.

If the plans are set in motion, 14 sub-jails that were shut down due to insufficient prisoners will be transformed into shelter homes.

The visually-challenged, mentally-ill, orphans, destitute women, ailing persons, senior citizens and persons with disabilities would be shifted into two each closed sub-jails which would be used as homes.

Also, training would be provided to those who are admitted to the shelter homes in order to upgrade their skills in the market for the products manufactured by them.

It is an initiative to support them financially and enable them to become independent without opting to beg or crime.