By IANS,
Jammu : The Prevention of Begging Act has not been implemented in Jammu and Kashmir, the state government admitted here Friday.
Minister for Planning and Development Ajay Kamar Sadhotra said: “The menace of begging is a source of nuisance causing annoyance and inconvenience to people, whether in a busy market, tourist place, roadside, railway station, bus stop or entrance to any institute or a business establishment or a religious place.”
Sadhotra was replying to a calling attention motion in the legislative council.
He said that the Jammu and Kashmir Prevention of Begging Act (JKPBA) has been enacted in the state in 1960.
“The act provides that if any person is found begging within an area to which this act applies, he shall be guilty of an offence under the act,” he said.
He added that the act provides for the arrest without a warrant of anyone found begging.
The minister said: “Due to the prevailing situation in the state for the past two decades, the infrastructure in the shape of sick homes, beggar homes and children’s homes could not be set up, on account of which enforcement of the act has not been possible.”