Beggars in Hyderabad earn Rs 2 lakh a month!

This emerged when police spoke to a few families who were rounded up during the recent crackdown on the 'beggar mafia' in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: A few families seeking alms at traffic junctions in the city are earning anywhere between Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh a month! Yes, you read it right. This emerged when police spoke to a few families who were rounded up during the recent crackdown on the ‘beggar mafia’ in the city. These ‘families’ maintain full control over traffic junctions in the tri-commissionerates of Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda and seek alms.

“Entire family, including husband, wife, four to five children and the elderly, take over a junction and not allow others to operate there. On average, they earn anywhere between Rs 4,000 to Rs 7,000 a day,” said an official of the Hyderabad Commissioner’s Task Force. The preference for these gangs are the remunerative junctions such as Paradise, Jubilee Hills Checkpost, KBR Park, Masab Tank, Abid Road, Tank Bund, Koti Women’s College, Chandrayangutta and Mehdipatnam. The areas of operation are divided among themselves and wherever disputes arise, elders intervene. An amicable solution is arrived at by fixing different timing slots or traffic signal points among the groups.

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“The families come in the morning around 10 am in auto rickshaws and stay the whole day at the junction. In the evening, they return to their houses by auto rickshaws,” said the official. The police found that some of these families are also into money lending business and while returning home take liquor or toddy to consume apart from biryani parcels.

Lured by the income, some unscrupulous persons have started organising a mafia and employing physically challenged people, children, elderly men and women. “At the end of the day, the organisers pay an amount of Rs 200 to each of them. Food and accommodation are provided by the organiser,” said DCP (west) Joel Davis. The Jubilee Hills police caught a man, Ajit Pawar (28) of Gulbarga, who had employed 23 persons including children. The police seized eight vehicles from him and learnt that he was investing heavily in the chit fund business and owned a couple of houses in Karnataka.