Now, beggars’ biometric details to go online
Stung by the large-scale deaths of inmates and mismanagement at the Beggars Colony, the Social Welfare Department has swung into action by attempting to initiate an online management system with biometric details of all the inmates.
The Beggars Personal Management System will have all the details of the inmates including their places of stay, photographs, thumb impressions and whatever other details are available.
Commissioner of Social Welfare Manjunath Prasad said collection of data had already begun.
All the details of the inmates with the exception of photographs and biometrics are expected to be collected in 3-4 days.
“The data bank is expected to be ready in one week’s time. All the information will be available on our website which will be revamped,” he said. Close on the heels of the Delhi government’s initiative, this move is expected to provide complete transparency into the working of the rehabilitation centre. Once the system is set up, any person anywhere can log on to the website and put a word-based search either on name or other identification tags.
All the particulars will be displayed. This will ensure that there are no scope for complaints, Prasad said. It will specifically address problems of random people being picked up and being placed at all the 14 state-run rehabilitation homes.
The recent spate of deaths under horrifying conditions at the Colony had also brought to light, the poor administrative handling of beggars’ registration, identification and maintaining of records.
The last few days have revealed several incidents of innocent people being rounded by the police and then enrolled into the Colony without any verification of their antecedents.
PIL dismissed
The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday dismissed the Public Interest Litigation filed by a City-based advocate A V Amarnathan seeking an inquiry into the death of beggars.
“The liberty to file a writ petition is upon the petitioners, but the same should be substantiated with sufficient materials,” a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice Manjula Chellur observed while dismissing the petition.
The Division Bench also granted the liberty to file a fresh petition after a month, but with sufficient materials substantiating the pleadings.
