Rivers are sacred, important, source of fertility, providing employment opportunities to people, keeping them happy and healthy. It is nearer major rivers, civilizations prospered. Ganga, Yamuna, Narmada, Mahanadi, Brahmaputra; Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej; Kaveri, Godavari, Krishna, Palaru, Pennar, Thamarabarani – there are so many of them. Most of the holy places in India like, Varanasi, Haridwar, Talakaveri, Nasik, Ujjain, Patna, Bhadrachalam, Sri Rangam are situated along with the banks of holy rivers. The TriveniSangam in Allahabad is a confluence of 3 rivers the Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythological Saraswatiriver.
The river Godavari is the longest river in Southern India and called as “Dakshina Ganga”.Godavari pushkaram( గోదావరిపుష్కరాలు ) is a festival of River Godavari which occurs once in 12 years.During Godavari pushkaram pilgrims from all over the country come and have a holy dip in the river. Godavari originates near Nasik in Maharashtra, flows 1,465 kilometres, first eastwards across the Deccan Plateau then turns southeast, entering the West Godavari district and East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, then splits into two watercourses that widen into a large river delta and flow into the Bay of Bengal. Nearer Rajahmundry it is "Akhanda Godavari".
Even
as thousands are converging at the banks of the river Godavari, the Andhra
Pradesh Government has come up with a novel scheme to keep beggars away from
the crowded ghats where Godavari Pushkaralu is now being held — they've been
told to take home Rs 5,000 as compensation for loss of income and steer clear of
the grand event. The administration
announced the scheme along with the promise of free food on condition that the
beggars keep off the Mahakumbh of the south till July 25.
TOI Hyderabad
edition reports that a new problem confronts the Godavari Pushkaram Organising
Committee (GPOC): hordes of people, and not all of them beggars, are queuing up
for reparation. It is reported that more
than ,000 beggars were seen thronging almost all the Pushkaramghats,
particularly the 17 main ghats in the temple town, since the beginning of the
holy river festival on July 14. According
to rules of the government initiative, only beggars without ration cards and
access to welfare schemes like the NTR Bharosa pension scheme are eligible to
the largesse.
East Godavari
collector and GPOC member H Arun Kumar said CM Chandrababu Naidu took the
decision to reimburse beggars to curb disruption that could be caused by them
during the Pushkaram. "So far, we've identified 200 beggars within the
town, but surprisingly others are approaching us as well. We'll provide
reimbursement to genuine beggars after verification at the end of the
Pushkaram," Kumar is quoted as saying.
The committee is also running a check on the fingerprints of beggars and
matching these with ration card data to ensure reimbursement claimants are not
fake. "The beggar reimbursement scheme is not new for Naidu. The
government had used the same trick to shift beggars from Hyderabad to a
rehabilitation center during President Clinton's visit in 2000," a police
officer said.
A beggar at
PushkarGhat said, "I've no home or income and have been begging here for
the past decade. I can't go from here to some other place. Moreover, the entire
town is packed with pilgrims. I want to ask the government who is responsible
for people like me seeking alms?"
Going
by recent events, beggars in Andhra Pradesh may well suffer from cognitive
dissonance. They are faced with a unique situation where the state government
can both arrest them and pay them for being into begging.Yet,
at the same time, Andhra Pradesh, like most other states in India, has a law
criminalizing begging- the Andhra Pradesh Prevention of Beggary Act, 1977.In
2010, the government also notified rules which allow a police officer above the
rank of sub-inspector to arrest people found begging without warrant. If the
person is found to be physically fit and still indulging in begging, he or she
can be sent for detention in a workhouse for up to three years.
The Bombay
Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, which most states have adopted as an anti-beggary law, has a wide definition of what
constitutes “begging.” It includes not just soliciting alms, but also having no
visible means of sustenance, or “wandering about or remaining in any public
place in such a condition or manner, as makes it likely that the person doing
so exist soliciting or receiving alms.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
22nd
July 2015.
Inputs : Times of India; photo credit - www.godavarimahapushkaram.org
