Beggars and DMP's role

. PHOTO: AFP

These menacing ill-disposed beggars swarm all the traffic signals, intersections, crossroads and junctions in the city. They tap (knock) the car windows to draw the passengers' attention, extend their hand(s) and beseech for charity (money). If quietly obliged they rush to the second waiting target. If not, they get on one's nerves by pestering till one move or drives ahead.

These beggars are not always handicapped or crippled; some women in their thirties or forties with sickly babies on their laps pretend that they need the charity for the 'poor dozing' babies. As reported, these babies are sometimes drugged, with sedatives to 'display' the feeble state to persuade generous people. Thus these kids are bound to suffer from incurable diseases in the long run or as unemployed youths they will be criminals. In both ways they will be a bane and burden for society and the economy in future. But we hardly realise the penalty that we will eventually pay for them.

Any pedestrian, onlooker, bystander or commuter regularly witnesses how expatriates are hassled by beggars but there is none to care and come to the rescue of foreigners. This also severely damages a country's image but we consciously remain indifferent to the plight and the DMP is nonchalant about the annoyance being caused and suffered, and seems least bothered despite the predicament of the citizens and their foreign guests. Here comes the role of the DMP, along with DCC, which can effectively evict these uncouth acts in the recently beautified Dhaka. Beggars, after all, do not augment Dhaka's beauty! The DMP is fully aware of the mess they create on the contrary. In fact, they can pose serious threat to security, as our intelligence agencies seem oblivious of the potential hazards that criminals in disguise may cause.

In order to keep our beautiful city hassle-free, graceful, and orderly, steps should be taken to evict 'professional' beggars from all the major and prominent city thoroughfares immediately and rehabilitate the deserving ones . I would draw the attention of the DMP commissioner to this serious problem once again. Our capital, as the prime minister rightly pointed out, is becoming an attractive city; it is our duty to keep it free from public nuisances.