Hundreds of beggars have been told to buzz off from Colombo city for the SAARC period and go elsewhere on their own as the Colombo Municipal Council has shelved a plan to temporarily relocate them in some schools outside the city.
“Getting an order from a magistrate and providing them with shelter, transport and food is costly and the CMC is already lacking funds,” CMC’s Charity Commissioner D. Thenuwara said.
He said a formal evacuation process would be complicated and time consuming.
Western province Social Services Director General Gamini Kariyawasam said they had proposed a plan where the beggars would be kept in some schools for the period of the summit but the CMC had not implemented it due to lack of funds.
“There are more than 1500 beggars in the city and we planned only to provide temporary shelters for beggars in the areas where the SAARC summit is held and roads are used for the delegates,” he said adding that the cost would be around Rs. 2.5 million.
However at a discussion between CMC and Police officials, it was decided that the beggars would be ordered to keep out of SAARC summit areas and go elsewhere.
Police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekera said that for security reasons the beggars were to
leave the high security zones and other roads which would be used by the delegates.
“We have strictly ordered them and if they do not obey, we will forcibly remove them,” SSP Gunasekera warned.
Colombo Municipal Commissioner Badrani Jayawardena said they had received Rs. 347 million for work connected with the SAARC summit but 99 percent had been spent on infrastructure development especially road development and drainage repairs.
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