LAHORE – Dozens of beggars hold protest demonstration at Kalma Chowk on Wednesday against traffic police for stopping them from begging on main roads two weeks ago. Beggars during the protest have demanded that the government to create job opportunities for them or allow them to beg on main roads.
Over 50 beggars lodged protest demonstration at on Main Boulevard Road and kept the road blocked for about 20 minutes. Beggars while protesting chanted slogans against Chief Traffic Officer. Two weeks weeks ago Chief Traffic Officer ordered traffic police officers and traffic wardens to launch a campaign against beggars and remove them from main roads. Beggars have demanded that the government suspend Chief Traffic Officer Captain Mubeen. They were carrying written posters.
While the beggars chanted slogans against the CTO but they demanded justice from the Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif, raising slogans in his favor. The protestors requested the Chief Minister Punjab to look into the matter personally and said that if government does not want to see them on the roads, they should create opportunities for them. They said that traffic police officials were not allowing them to beg on main roads but they could not earn their bread without coming on main roads.
They claimed that traffic police officials have suggested they stay on inside streets and not come on on main roads. A beggar said that they cannot do anything since most are disabled. He said that government never thought about creating opportunities for them. Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Capt (r) Mubeen while talking to Pakistan Today said that traffic police has taken this initiative at their own and continue their efforts to clean main roads from beggars.
He said that beggars were a security threat since they could check the the movements of important personalities. He said that beggars create traffic hurdles and their presence has caused several accidents. He said that they have arrested several beggars and have handed them over to the concerned police for registration of cases against them but these beggars return to their places after obtaining bails from courts.
He said it was falling to only the traffic police’s responsibility to remove beggars from main roads. He said that the local police and the department developed to curb begging should help traffic police in removing these professional beggars from the roads. The CTO said that the beggars protest would fall on deaf ears and the traffic police would continue its operation against them.
Superintendent of Traffic Police City Division Imtiaz Sarwar told Pakistan Today that most beggars are professionals and earns thousands of rupees on daily basis. He said that government operates Dar-ur-Rehmat for beggars but they do not stay there. He said that whenever traffic police arrest them and hand them over to the local police they return to their spots after getting bail.
Describing the infrastructure of begging, he said that they operate in gangs and a head who allocate areas for a specific beggar to operate individually.
