Pilgrimage spots in Gujarat to be made beggar free

Ahmedabad, May 21

The Gujarat government has decided to make the religious and pilgrimage destinations in the state beggar free for which it has initiated a project, officials said on Friday.

This project will be implemented in all religious tourist places in the coming days so that no beggar can be seen in all religious tourist places in Gujarat.

Instructions regarding this are likely to be provided next month during a meeting.

The state government has selected Rajpipla city as a pilot project. Those involved in begging were shifted to 'Ren Basera'.

A total of more than 176 people were counselled in the pilot project conducted at Rajpipla. Currently, a total of 136 people are availing the benefits.

Counselling of the beggars had started in December 2021. However, about 50 beggars have also left Ren Basera, and went back to begging.

All the beggars brought to Ren Basera would be assigned work according to their skills and abilities. They would also be given proper compensation.

Talking about the scheme, Tourism and Pilgrimage Minister Purnesh Modi said a survey is being conducted by more than 10 agencies of the Gujarat government.

Officials said the government is making efforts to make all the beggars self-reliant through this project.

It was decided to provide a total of 35 different types of benefits to the beneficiaries, including food, clothing, Covid vaccine in the first phase.

In the second phase, the beneficiaries will be given 13 benefits like income proof, caste certificate, name in the voter list etc., while in the final, i.e. third phase, it has been planned to provide 13 more benefits including toilet, employment oriented training, accommodation, etc.