If you happen to visit Bhubaneswar this Puja, chances are you will find no beggars on the streets of the city.

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has launched a drive to make the Odisha capital beggar-free.

As the first step, the special squads of BMC have started visiting temples and Puja mandaps to ensure that no beggars are seeking alms in these areas. If the squad finds any beggars on the street, it will take them to the rehabilitation centres set up by it.

Bhubaneswar mayor Sulochana Das told The Telegraph: “During the men’s hockey World Cup that was held in January this year, we initiated steps to ensure that Bhubaneswar remains beggar-free. But beggars are back on the streets. A systematic racket is going on. 90 per cent of beggars are from outside Odisha. With the help of police commissionerate, we are taking steps to stop begging.”

Das said: “The BMC has set up 5 rehabilitation centres for beggars. There are seven shelters for urban homeless functioning in the city. In the rehabilitation centres for beggars, both the lodging and food are free. We have also set up gyms for them

“The purpose is that they should be motivated and not come back to the streets begging. Each rehabilitation centre can accommodate 100 beggars. Now at the rehabilitation centres, 252 people are being rehabilitated and in the shelter home for urban, 300 people are staying.”

The mayor said, this apart, steps are being taken to send them back to their respective families. “If the families don’t take interest in keeping them, we will rehabilitate them. At any cost, we will ensure the city becomes beggar-free.”