Hope you all read about the BBMP councillor extorting Rs 15000 / month from an eatery at Kalasipalya. Here is the news report in DH. I cross checked to find same version in Hindu also, so its not a one off tabloid type story:
Channegowda said in his complaint that Avvayi collected a ‘mamool’ of Rs 500 from him every month ... On Monday morning, Avvayi allegedly came to his hotel and demanded that he pay a lumpsum bribe of Rs 35,000 for the entire year as she could not come every month for the paltry sum of Rs 500. Channegowda had not paid the ‘mamool’ of Rs 500 for November ... During ... meeting with Avvayi, he negotiated and brought down the amount to Rs 20,000.
Shameful, obviously. But I hope newspapers won't continue to ignore this "source of revenue" for primarily three groups that extort 'illegal' or street vendors. If you can talk to street vendors and get them to open up a bit, you will figure that they pay varying amounts of sum to:
- BBMP
- One local thug, who "allots" or "preserves" space on the street for the vendor
- Local cops
Frequency of collection ranges from weekly to daily. Any journalists reading this, I strongly encourage them to do their bit to bring this to light. I have asked 3-4 hawkers, that is too small a sample size to draw firm conclusions from.
How to manage this situation - should street vendors be allowed to block footpaths or not - is a slightly different, but related topic. Another of those urban planning situations that are unique to our cities and don't have a ctrl-C from west ctrl-V here solutions.
Comments
It is in TOI also
I know police constables collecting money [Bakshis] from regular [not way side] shops. Similarly all foot path venders also are a source of income for the powers that be.
This story is like the goose and the golden egg. Killing the goose to get more is foolishness of course. For the TOI story Click here [1]
rough numbers - Rs 13.5 Crores / month, Rs 27K / person
Lets do some math based on approximations.
Assuming total numbers in of such vendors and hawkers to be 2x number of autos in Bangalore. 90K x 2 = 1.8 Lakh.
Now, let us assume that all combined, 5000 people are sharing this booty
Not bad for side income? However, the sharing may not be even across all involved, and numbers have heavy approximations.
Just checked, anyone else willing?
Just checked again last evening with one 'street vendor'. "rates" vary, but payouts continue. Also, this this guy said that 'cops' are not as regular as local guys when it comes to collection.
Hey - really keen to check with 4-5 vendors on four corners of the city to check if these "things" and "amounts" are true. I will do five on whitefield side. Anyone else keen to join in?
Thanks The Hindu - Pub owners confess, BBMP worse than cops!
From The hindu, Jan 15 2013, page 4, "Cup of woe is full for Pub Owners".
Well, most street vendors too pay BBMP (based on anecdotal checks, needs to be proven through a proper survey). But notice the amounts.
Reporter Sudipto Mondal reports that this is a "well oiled machinery".
See, who said the police is not well organized.
Thank you The Hindu for deciding to report this. Let us wish that every newspaper wakes up and reports such things that are "take for granted" and thus not reported as if these were the facts of city lives that we just have to life with.
30 Cr per month - extortion economy estimates so far :)
50-100 per week by local cops is what I got from 3 street vendors. Numbers in Hindu report say Rs 50 per day, and then weekly and monthly numbers.
BBMP "numbers" too are lot lower for street vendors :) So good to see some 'consideration' and 'conncessions' here.
Now, assuming 10000 pubs/restaurants serving licenses in Bangalore, and taking slightly lower numbers than in this news report:
184 Crore per year, or 15.3 Crores per month, Add numbers estimates from street vendors, which was 13.5 Cr per month. Both add up to appx 30 Cr per month of extortion economy estimated so far.
PS Is all this "harassment" less worthy of Lokayukta et al's time? Sadly, we all like going after and discussing the big fishes and big names. Absolutely the wrong approach.
Things will not change. Community need to take charge
Lets face it. All these estimates are good for analysis, but what what can we do about it. The collections are too tempting for the munipal authorities/ Cops to give up. Do not expect change
Hence, if we are at their mercy to ensure law enforcement, you can imagine the state of affairs in the future.
I have stated this in the previous forum and I am stating it again, only community patrolling is the way to ensure violations and crimes are in check. Communities need to be empowered to take direct action against violations being seen.
If this goes unchecked, can you imagine how your city will be in the next 3-5 years time????..
I am an bangalorean, who has lived in Mumbai. I have seen how cities go through 'steady' degradation.
Lets stop asking what this city can do for us and instead, what we can do for this city (and our children)
Can we form groups and take direct action? we can chalk out a strategy. All this , within the purview of law
Regards
Vimal
Law enforcement
Bangalore city consists of all who live in there. As such our concern is about law makers becoming the law breakers apart from hard core criminals.
back to being specific
Okay, whether we can directly think of doing anything about it or not, I think getting main stream media to write specifically about this more and more would be good. Let us at least start talking numbers, and hopefully, soon some names as well.
I hope some other readers here would go out, ask around and get some numbers and specifics of this organized "extortion" business.