Process begins to make Odisha’s temple city beggar-free

Bhubaneswar: If everything goes as planned,  Odisha’s Temple City Bhubaneswar will be beggar-free soon.

After ensuring shelter to homeless and destitute, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to rehabilitate beggars in the city. As directed by BMC Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary, measures will be taken to identify the beggars, shift them to shelter homes and make them self-reliant as per their abilities through various programmes and schemes.

The civic body will open a rehabilitation centre under the jurisdiction of each of its three regional offices in the city and each centre will have 100 beds. The centres will be operated and managed by professional agencies. Tender has already been floated for the project, BMC sources said.

The centre will accommodate people of all groups, including senior citizens, women, children and differently-abled. After the guidelines were approved by  the the state Government, the BMC has invited Expression of Interest (EOI) for the purpose, said BMC Deputy Commissioner Kamalakant Behera.

Recently, some beggars from Ram Mandir area were accommodated in various shelter homes. Besides, several homeless labourers, who used to sleep under open sky in the city even on cold winter nights, have also been lodged in  various shelter homes.