Karnataka: Scout spacious location for Beggars Rehabilitation Centre, says Lokayukta

MANGALURU: Karnataka Lokayukta P Vishwanath Shetty directed the revenue authority concerned to allocate a different and spacious site to house the Beggars Rehabilitation Centre for this coastal city.
The centre at present is functioning at Pachchanady on the city outskirts on a two-acre land and is home to 150 homeless people who resort to begging to eke out a livelihood. The new spacious plot should be sufficient to rehabilitate them fully, the Lokayukta said.

Visiting the centre and inspecting the facilities there, the Lokayukta directed the Mangaluru tahshildar to identify a spacious plot that is at least 10-15 acres in the next 15 days. The inmates of the centre should be put into productive practices in their spare time and trained in agriculture, horticultural operations and also cottage industry activities, he said, adding this could be achieved in a spacious campus on not effectively at the current plot.
Observing there are 11 such centres across Karnataka, Lokayukta said the centre in Bengaluru is functioning well. Convicts in central jails in the state get wages ranging up to Rs 250/day depending on task given to them there. Like, the Lokayukta will send a proposal to the government to give wages to those housed in such rehabilitation centres as an incentive and also as a deterrent from prosecution under The Karnataka Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975, he noted.
When people indulging in begging or the homeless are housed at such rehabilitation centres, it is the duty of the state to provide them with all facilities that will give such people a dignified life, the Lokayukta, who inspected all buildings, kitchen, toilets, garden, said. He also interacted with the inmates and sought their feedback. Guruprasad, Mangaluru tahshildar, Bharati, Lokayukta Police Inspector and other officials were present.