Around 11am on a busy working day in Dhaka, a man in his middle ages came up to a vegetable stall near Tejgaon College in the Farmgate area. The vendor, without saying a word, gave the man Tk1,000. Taking the money, the man moved to the next stall.
The vendor said the name of the middle-aged man was Shah Alam. He was the secretary of ward no 99 unit of Jubo League, ruling Awami League’s youth front.
Shah Alam is also the secretary of the Farmgate Hawkers Welfare Association. He comes to the stalls once every month and extorts Tk1,000-Tk1,500 out of each of them.
The Dhaka Tribune reporters followed him; but somehow, he sensed their presence. To cut them off his tail, he slipped into a local residential hotel and disappeared.
When the reporters asked the people inside the hotel about Shah Alam’s whereabouts, his followers forced them to leave the place.
The vendor said the 900 stalls in the area paid more than Tk11.25 lakh in total to Shah Alam and police every month.
Nearly all the stalls set up on the footpaths of the capital pay the monthly “toll.” When BNP was in power, the local leaders of the party collected the toll; just like the way the local leaders of Awami League are doing now.
MA Kashem, president of the Bangladesh Hawkers Federation, told the Dhaka Tribune that all of the 2.5 lakh hawkers in the capital “must” pay the toll. While the Farmgate hawkers pay a monthly toll, there are many footpath traders who pay daily tolls of around Tk50.
On that count, the footpath vendors pay a staggering total of Tk37.5 crore as toll per month to these politically-backed extortionists.
Kashem said: “Not just the political leaders, even law enforcers of local police stations are also involved with the rackets.”
However, MA Aziz, acting president of Dhaka city unit Awami League, snubbed out the allegations saying organisational actions would be taken against anyone found guilty of extorting. “These members will not be given any post in the party ranks in future,” he assured.
There are about 350 footpath stalls in the Motijheel area. According to some of the owners, they pay around Tk15 lakh every month.
In the capital’s Gulistan area, local ruling party activists Babul Chowdhury and Nurul Amin allegedly collect the tolls. From stalls on the footpath from the Shahbagh intersection to the TSC on the Dhaka University campus, two linemen named Islmail and Riazuddin collect the money. Even if for opening a stall on the footpath in this area, one has to pay a huge sum first up.
The chatpati vendor at Shahbagh said every night a sub-inspector from the nearby police station come to his stall, chat with his friends for hours occupying his seats and goes away with at least Tk100.
One Ramzan Miah allegedly collects the toll from the stalls on the footpath in front of the Birdem hospital. When the reporters contacted him and said they wanted to open a stall on the footpath, Ramzan said they would have to give him Tk20,000 first up and Tk200 every day as “rent.”
Sirajul Islam, OC of Shahbagh police station, told the Dhaka Tribune that his officers were not involved with the extortion. “In fact, they conduct regular drives to remove the hawkers and free the footpaths,” he claimed.
The Dhaka Tribune has learnt that Koton and Saju collect the tolls in the Baitul Mukarram area; Siraj Talukdar, Selim and Moududi Nur Islam in Jurain; Torab Ali in Jatrabari; Hossain, Sattar and Rafiq in New Market; and Kana Dulal and Shah Alam in the Farmgate area.
The various associations of the hawkers have told the authorities from time to time that they are even ready to pay taxes if actions were taken against these extortionists.
“The government is losing crores of takas because of an absence of rules and regulations [for governing footpath business],” said Arif Chowdhury, president of the National Hawkers Federation.
Mohammad Ansar Ali Khan, CEO of Dhaka South City Corporation, said: “We often clear the footpaths by conducting raids. But they [footpath vendors] come back every time.”
He said: “Only police can take action against this.”
Monirul Islam, a joint commissioner of police, said: “Police is not the name of an individual. It is an organisation. There might be complaints against one or two of its members but that does not mean the entire organisation is involved.” He promised to take actions through proper investigation if any police member was found involved with the crime.