Delhi Police move 280 beggars from CP to shelters

The market association and the Delhi Police said Connaught Place will become Delhi’s first market to be “beggar-free.”

At least 280 people who were found begging in Connaught Place were shifted to different shelter homes in the past one month as part of the Delhi Police’s drive to make the popular market free of beggars, officials associated with the drive said on Tuesday.

A view of the Hanuman Temple complex at CP, which was declared a ‘no-beggar zone’.  (Sanchit Khanna/HT)

The market association and the Delhi Police said Connaught Place will become Delhi’s first market to be “beggar-free.”

Records of the 280 men and women, who were picked up and shifted to shelter homes run by city NGOs, showed that almost 90% of beggars detained from CP lived outside the Hanuman Temple. Of them, there were at least seven families, who had been living on the road outside the temple for the last 15 years.

Their children either begged or worked as street vendors in the outer circle of CP, according to their claims when they were interviewed by NGOs.

Police officers aware of the action over the last one month said their investigation also led to the arrest of 10 drug traffickers, who were selling drugs such as heroin and marijuana to the homeless and some beggars in Connaught Place. All 10 have been booked under different provisions of the NDPS Act.

Rajesh Kumar, executive director of the Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses(SPYM), one of the NGOs rehabilitating the beggars and vagabonds, said that they have shifted around 300 beggars.

“CP is the first market to be free of vagabonds and beggars. The Delhi government too helped us by providing shelter and food to these persons. During our one-to-one interaction with them, we also learnt that many children were told to beg by their parents. We have counselled both the children and their parents. The process of rehabilitating them will take around six months to a year. The work has started,” Kumar said.

Kumar said that there were many persons, who were addicted to drugs. “They have been referred to the drug de-addiction centres. For the first time, we have seen that the homeless have not returned to the roads in CP.”

The drive has also resulted in the decline of complaints by shoppers. Police records show that in the last 15 days (December 1 – December 15), there has not been a single distress call complaining about vagabonds or drug addicts snatching their cell phones or bags. In November, the police received there were six such snatching calls . There were 15 calls in October, 7 in September.

“Until the clean-up drive happened, we would get calls related to shoppers being harassed by some vagabonds in the subways of Connaught Place. For the last 15 days, the number of such calls have also stopped,” a police officer, aware of the development said.

Atul Bhargava, president of the National Delhi Traders Association, said that the market associations are holding regular meetings with police “to bring back the glory of CP”. “Among the many people living in the CP streets, there was an English speaking homeless elderly man too. I always saw him at A block. He too has been rehabilitated by an NGO roped in by the police. If there are no encroachments by vagabonds and beggars, we will successfully restore the glory of CP,” Bhargava said.