Story highlights Police rounded up 198 people this week and took them to "structures" next to prisons

Prison officials say the drive to rid the streets of beggars is nothing new

(CNN) Police in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad are doing a last-minute sweep to get beggars off the streets ahead of Ivanka Trump's visit later this month.

The unprecedented order was given by the city's police commissioner earlier this week and will last for two months, according to V.K. Singh, the director general of prisons in Hyderabad.

President Trump's daughter is scheduled to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in the city -- one of India's tech hubs -- at the end of November. Despite the timing, authorities deny they are rounding up beggars because of her visit.

"It's a permanent drive," Singh told CNN. "The government, since 30 years, have been trying to figure out what to do about them." The commissioner plans to renew the order after it expires, he added.

Speaking on a wider issue surrounding Hyderabad's begging crisis, Singh said: "There is a mafia or a network behind this who force people to beg or kidnap some children and force them into begging."

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