Puri/Bhubaneswar: Girija Shankar Mishra, a BTech graduate who had been begging in Puri town for 20 years, has reunited with his family living in Bhubaneswar Sunday.
Sources said that after completing his BTech in 1993, Girija had joined an engineering college as a lecturer. His father was a DSP and his brothers are all settled in foreign countries.
After his parents’ death, Girija had left his family and home over a dispute and landed in Puri. He had spent some days searching for a job. But despite being highly qualified he could not get a job and ended up asking for alms for survival.
He had thus spent twenty years on Puri grand road, leaving everything to the mercy of Lord Jagannath.
Two days ago he had a verbal duel with a rickshaw puller over an issue. Later, Girija lodged an FIR with the Puri Town police station. The officers were taken aback to see a beggar’s FIR all written in error-free English.
Out of curiosity, the police started investigating to know all about Girija’s past and then only his identity came to the fore. They came to know that he is a BTech graduate and a native of Jayadev Vihar in Bhubaneswar. Sunday afternoon, Girija’s elder sister, brother-in-law and brother reached Puri and took him with them to Bhubaneswar.
Expressing his concern over Girija’s case, advocate Anil Kumar Sahu said the pilgrim town has been a target of terrorists. If any terrorist comes to this town in guise of a beggar then what would be the situation. So the administration should take steps to identify beggars by issuing identity cards to them.
PNN