Plan to make cities free from beggars

The government has prepared an action plan to achieve the goal of beggary-free India. Under this, a list of 30 cities, important from religious, historical and tourism point of view has been prepared for survey and rehabilitation of adults, women and children engaged in begging.

There are 4 cities of Madhya Pradesh among these. Among these, two religious cities are Ujjain and Omkareshwar. At the same time, Sanchi-Khajuraho has been included in the tourist destinations and Indore has been included in the historical cities.

The aim of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is to support the district and municipal corporations in making them free from beggary by 2026. The ministry will launch a national portal and mobile app by mid-February to ensure monitoring of survey and rehabilitation guidelines in these cities. The information about those begging will be identified and updated on the app. The officials will also have to update the progress reports of shelter, skills, education and rehabilitation on the mobile app and portal to conduct survey and rehabilitation. The survey will follow the same pattern.

Out of thirty cities, 25 have sent feedback. Feedback is yet to be received from Kangra, Cuttack, Udaipur and Kushinagar. Sanchi officials of the state have said that there is not a single beggar in this area. After this, consideration is being given to including some other city in the list instead of Sanchi. Kozhikode, Vijayawada, Madurai and Mysuru have already completed the survey.

The government may bring a new affordable housing scheme for the urban poor on the lines of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana launched in 2015.

The plan is likely to be announced before the general elections. Under this, loan subsidy for houses will be given to low and middle income families of cities and their surrounding areas. The Housing-Urban Affairs Ministry has already held meetings with top lenders in the country to prepare the proposed loan subsidy scheme.

According to officials attending the meetings, the ministry has indicated that the share of loan subsidy under the scheme will not be as high as last time. The government has asked how much refinancing will be required from lenders for the scheme and what will be the interest rate? The government says the scheme is for the poor, so lenders should not take high profits.

Religious places Ayodhya, Omkareshwar, Kangra, Somnath, Ujjain, Trimbakeshwar, Pavagadh, Bodh Gaya, Madurai, Guwahati. Tourist places Jaisalmer, Thiruvananthapuram, Vijayawada, Kushinagar, Sanchi, Kevadiya, Srinagar, Namsai, Khajuraho, Puducherry. Historic Udaipur, Cuttack, Indore, Warangal, Tezpur, Mysuru, Kozhikode, Amritsar, Panchkula, Shimla are included in the list.