Beggars taken off roads on Obama’s route

It took Delhi police more than a week before the Commonwealth Games but for the US President Obama's visit they took just two days to accomplish it.

It took Delhi police more than a week before the Commonwealth Games but for the US President Obama's visit they took just two days to accomplish it.

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The police force rounded up beggars and the homeless along the routes and areas on the US first couple's itinerary.

"They had just started returning to their dwellings in the city after Diwali when the local police started harassing them at the railway stations," said Paramjeet Kaur, director of Ashray Adhikar Abhiyan, an NGO that works for the rights of the city's homeless.

According to Kaur, the local police "sanitised" the entire Nizamuddin area by Saturday evening.

"Those who returned to their spots near the Dargah were rounded-up and driven away. Even those who stay in temporary dwellings were threatened," she said. Those who heard about the US President’s two-day visit, made a run for it themselves, she added.

On their part, the Delhi police rubbished such claims and denied any such action was undertaken.