india

Updated: Nov 08, 2017 23:10 IST

The Hyderabad police declared begging an offence and banned people from seeking alms on the city’s streets for two months, days ahead of Ivanka Trump’s visit here.

Sources said the ban has been brought in to avoid any inconvenience to foreign delegates, who will be arriving in the city for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit from November 28-30.

In a late night order issued on Tuesday, Hyderabad police commissioner M Mahendar Reddy said begging has been banned from Wednesday to January 7, 2018 under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

“The beggars are also employing children and handicapped persons to solicit or receive alms at the main junctions of the road. These acts are dangerous to the safety of the vehicular traffic and public in general,” reads the commissioner’s order.

Within hours of the ban coming into force, the police launched a drive to shift beggars from popular areas like Jubilee Hills, Madhapur, Banjara Hills and Punjagutta junction to the temporary rehabilitation centre set up near the Hyderabad central prison in Chanchalguda.

The Global Entrepreneurship Summit is being jointly organised by US and Indian governments. It will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka.

Hyderabad is also scheduled to host the World Telugu Conference in December and the Indian Science Congress in the first week of January.

In 2000, the then Chandrababu Naidu government of then non-bifurcated state of Andhra Pradesh had imposed a similar ban on the movement of beggars during the visit of then US President Bill Clinton to Hyderabad.