THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The City Corporation is planning a joint venture with the Sri Sathya Sai Orphanage Trust to launch a rehabilitation programme for beggars. The civic body has initiated discussions with the NGO to kick-start the project which has been hanging fire for the past five years.

Under the proposed pact, the rehabilitation centre set up by the corporation at the Kothalam Road in the Fort area will be transferred to the trust. A specially-equipped vehicle will be provided to round up beggars from the streets and bring them to the shelter.

The corporation is planning to impose a ban on begging in the city to coincide with the launch of the project. A strategy to identify and discourage inter-State begging rackets with police assistance is also on the anvil. M. Vinodkumar, chairman of the corporation's standing committee on welfare, said the joint venture pact was expected to be signed next week after the final round of discussions.

Executive director of the trust K.N. Anandakumar said the rehabilitation scheme would be preceded by a public announcement campaign to publicise the begging ban and create awareness about the need to discourage begging. The trust will organise volunteer squads to bring the beggars to the shelter.

"We offered to take up the project with the corporation's support. The trust will bear the expense of rehabilitating the beggars and providing them food and clothing. We are also arranging medical assistance for the needy," he said. The shelter at Kothalam can accommodate 60 persons at a time. The trust operates a beggar rehabilitation programme in Kochi.

The corporation officials said the success of the project would depend on police support to enforce the ban on begging and check organised begging rackets operated from across the State borders.

Under the original proposal formulated in 2000, the corporation had planned to set up the rehabilitation centre on Government land in the suburban village of Kottoor. But despite several attempts and an order issued by the Ombudsman for local bodies, the project remained a non-starter.

According to a survey carried out by a city-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), almost 60 per cent of the beggars in the city are from neighbouring States.

A medical camp for beggars conducted by the NGO revealed that almost 90 per cent of the women were victims of sexually transmitted diseases. A majority of the women and children who turned up at the camp were found to be addicted to liquor and tobacco. The survey found that many of the women were victims of sexual exploitation.

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