NAROWAL: The Sialkot district administration has launched a campaign to purge the city of its 2,000 beggars and engage them in the activities to clean the city.

Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Zulqarnain Langrial told Dawn that a grand operation against the beggars had been launched on the directions of the Punjab government and besides the district administration, Social Welfare Department, Municipal Corporation and Police Department were also participating in it. He said there are more than 2,000 beggars in Sialkot city alone as it was an industrial city. He added that dozens of beggars were being arrested and sent to jail on a daily basis but after a couple of days, they would get bail from the court and restart begging again.

Mr Langrial made it clear that the administration was not arresting the people with disabilities and the elderly but only the healthy men and women involved in beggary. He said the arrested beggars were being engaged in cleaning the city and they were sweeping the bus stands, roads, cemeteries and other major public places.

The DC Sialkot claimed that this unique idea would eliminate professional beggars.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Sialkot Ayub Bukhari said the citizens were upset because of the large number of beggars. He said there was difficulty due to lack of proper law for the elimination of beggars but the administration would make Sialkot a beggar-free district.

District Police Officer Faisal Shahzad said the police department was playing an important role in the operation against the beggars. He said the beggars would be made useful citizens of the society and the businessman community was being consulted to provide the beggars with jobs in the industrial zone.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2025