Ivanka Trump speaks at a fireside chat on tax reform with at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on November 5, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / FREDERIC J,. BROWN)
This photo taken on November 8, 2017 shows Indian beggars who were brought to a shelter after being caught begging on the street in Hyderabad. (AFP PHOTO / NOAH SEELAM)
An Indian woman begs on the side of the road in Hyderabad on November 10, 2017.
(AFP PHOTO / NOAH SEELAM)
An Indian man begs on the side of the road in Hyderabad on November 10, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / NOAH SEELAM)
NEW DELHI — A city in southern India has banned begging in public places ahead of a three-day summit that Ivanka Trump is due to attend, police said Friday.
The daughter of the US president will join India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad later this month.
Hyderabad police commissioner M Mahendar Reddy reportedly issued an order this week that beggars should be taken off the streets because they cause “nuisance, obstruction to free movement (and) danger to vehicular traffic and pedestrians.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks at an event celebrating 25 years of relations between Israel and India, at the Convention Center in Tel Aviv, on July 5, 2017.(Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
On Friday a senior police officer who asked not to be named said the notification was part of the city’s “routine anti-begging efforts” and should not be linked to Trump’s visit.
He said the city had set up a rehabilitation centre where the beggars could be housed until they were able to “lead normal lives”.
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Begging will be banned in the city until January 7, with offenders facing jail or a fine.
Activist Madhu Purnima Kishwar said the order amounted to “criminalizing” poverty.
“It is cruel as it criminalises poverty,” she said. “Did they expect them (dignitaries) to take a stroll and talk to the beggars on the street?”
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