Three more centres planned

In a bid to address lack of space for housing, the Social Welfare Department is now contemplating on starting three new rehabilitation centres for beggars in the City.

Still in its conceptual stage, rehabilitation centres in three zones of Bangalore i.e East, North and South apart from the Beggars’ Colony in the West will be an alternative to ensure that the number of inmates are kept under check.

“At present, we are unable to provide housing for the increasing number of beggars at the Colony. The only way we can keep a tab is by limiting the number of beggars,” said a department official.

The Beggars’ Colony is said to have a cap of 1,000 inmates now. The department officials privy to the concept of creating three more rehabilitation centres in the City told Deccan Herald that the need for land is very minimal and hence should not be a problem.

“We do not need more than an acre of land in each of the zones for creating the infrastructure,” the officials said. The three new rehabilitation centres, if proposed, will house not more than 500 inmates in each of the centres.

Statistics suggest that there were more than 2,500 inmates as on August 1 2010. Since then, the numbers have decreased to 745 with most inmates escaping the unhygienic conditions at the Colony.