Drive to have beggar-free city

GUANGZHOU: Beggars here are being told to move into shelters or pack up and go home as part of a scheme to clean up the city's streets, the Information Times News reported yesterday.

The local civil affairs bureau launched the campaign after the people's congress said beggars were disrupting social order and damaging the city's image.

Between August 2003 and April of this year, more than 140,000 beggars have stayed at government-run shelters in the city, the bureau said.