BUST GANGS RUNNING BEGGING RACKET

Begging is a social blot and both a humanitarian and law and order issue and warrants a two-pronged resolution with a timebound road map.

Those physically challenged, abandoned or others renouncing the material world for spiritual solace must be taken care of by the administration and society. It is appalling to see famished children sleeping on an empty stomach. In a welfare state, those who are starving should have the first right to public purse and resources. Free community kitchens should be set up for the really poor and needy. Traffic policemen/marshals must not be mute spectators to small children or young women with babies in arms walking from vehicle to vehicle at traffic light points. Organised gangs running the begging business should be busted immediately. As most beggars belong to a floating population who have made the tricity their base for making money they must be sent back to their native places. Parents of small children found begging should be counselled about family planning. However, they should not be treated unkindly for most of them are not here by choice. They deserve empathy because begging strikes at the dignity and psyche of an individual.

Lalit Bharadwaj, Panchkula