& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Extortion rampant on city footpaths

Traders made to pay daily toll to policemen

Ashif Islam Shaon
For a section of police officials, collecting toll from small traders on the footpaths in Farmgate in the capital has become a smart means of making quick bucks.
Each of around 500 vendors in the area
has to pay Tk 60 to Tk 100 every day to several teams of Tejgaon and Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police to run their business smoothly.
The police high command seems unaware of this open extortion although the practice is on for last couple of years.
"I have already paid Tk 40 to two police patrol teams. Normally this figure goes up to Tk 100 to Tk 120 by evening," lemon juice vendor Awlad Hossain described toll collection by police at Farmgate.
Vendors are often seen bargaining with the police to fix the amount, which depends on their sale and politeness.
"If you are locked in an argument with them [police], you will have to pay double eventually. The policemen do not like haggling," said Abdul Alim, who sells T-shirts under a foot overbridge.
Policemen even beat up vendors for failing to pay them tolls. On March 20, two constables of Tejgaon police — Fayez Ahmed and Abdul Aziz -- beat up hawker Ariful Islam, 22, and sent him to a hospital.
Arif, a chanachur (snackmix) seller, who earns around Tk 300 per day, had refused to pay toll.
The accused policemen were suspended, while an investigation is going on in this regard, said Mahbubur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Tejgaon Police Station.
A number of hawkers say that only paying toll gives them the "right" to sit wherever they get free space. If the money is not paid, police evict them at once on charges of occupying footpaths, they add.
A number of privileged vendors can sit at the same place every day as the police have given them "permanent" permission for their "smart contributions", they said.
Tea stall owner Amzad Ali, who is running his business under the second foot over-bridge for five years, said normally police do not harass him as he knows how to "manage" them.
1\vo kinds of vendors trade on footpaths in terms of their business size. The smallest vendors selling food items,
fish or vegetables cannot afford to "buy" a permanent place from the police.
They carry goods and sit wherever they get free space, said Amzad. "As they do not have a fixed place, every team of patrol police collects Tk 10-15 from them," he added.
The traders who have makeshift wooden or iron boxes "rent" the same place every day giving money to the police once a day.
There is a third type of traders who can afford a chowki, a wooden dais or platform. They rent it from the "owners", who have "close relation" with the police and local goons, and have to pay toll as well.
"The police will not bother you. I will manage them. Just give me the daily rent and Tk 500 extra at month's end," said Anwar Mollah, who claimed to be the "owner" of seven makeshift chowkis in front ofTejgaon College.
"If any of the policemen misses his share, he himself
turns up and collects toll. They forces us in police vans if we refuse to pay the extra money," said Naimul Islam, a cookeries vendor.
"If the detainees cannot pay the money, the police often take away their cellphones or wrist watches," he added.
The Tejgaon OC said they evict the vendors almost every day but they come back again and again. Police do not allow hawkers on the VIP roads, but they spare some poor hawkers on the footpaths on humanitarian grounds, he added.
He denies the allegation of toll collection by policemen.
Contacted, Deputy Commissioner of Tejgaon Zone Imam Hossain said if any of the members of police is found involved in toll collection, action will be taken against them immediately.
"Name the policemen. I won't spare any of them," he added.