‘Same persons claiming reward multiple times’

HYDERABAD: In what is being seen as an undesirable development in the scheme that provides cash reward to people for spotting beggars, the claimants to the reward has stagnated and the spotting too is restricted to one area.

The same people are calling the prisons department multiple times and claiming the cash prize, whereas the authorities wanted the scheme to take off in all areas of the city. It was in October that the Prisons department started a drive to implement the law which criminalises the act of begging. It may be noted here that the prison’s department had initially offered `500 to anyone who passed information upon spotting beggars but it later increased the incentive to `1,000.

A third year-medico student, Md Abdul Khaleel (name changed) was one of the recipients who gave back-to-back information of spotting beggars in Charminar area in a single week.  “Another student like him from the same area called us in a similar fashion. When people want money, they have made use of this reward system because it is an easy way of earning money,” said K Sreeman Reddy, in-charge of the prisons control room. The prisons department officials feel that the claimants for rewards have stagnated. The data provided by the department revealed the trend. Only 33 persons have claimed the reward to date — 8 persons took it when the reward amount was `500, 25 when the incentive was `1,000.

“The reward system was not meant to incentivise the whole process but to draw people into the ambit of being socially responsible and reduce the menace of begging in the city. To a large extent, the department has been successful in eliciting such response from the people,” said M Sampath Kumar, Vice Principal, State Institute of Correctional Administration (SICA) and superintendent of Anand Ashram, a shelter home for beggars.