It's all for extortion

Despite repeated attempts in recent months, the authorities have failed to evict hawkers from the city's footpaths, as they manage to continue their business by paying “extortion money".

There are around 3.5 lakh shops on the city's footpaths, and they pay Tk 3 crore in “extortion money” a day, say leaders of different hawkers' associations in the capital.

The money goes into the pockets of a section of police officials, and some leaders of the ruling party and its front organisations through "linemen", they alleged.

Of the shops, 3,500 are in Gulistan, Baitul Mukarram and Paltan areas, and they pay Tk 28 lakh in “extortion money” a day, claimed Kamal Siddiqui, president of Bangladesh Chhinnamul Hawkers Samity.

He said the hawkers have to pay between Tk 50 and Tk 500 every day depending on the size and location of their stalls.

"Our income would have gone up if we didn't have to give them extortion money," said Kamal.

Contacted, Md Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner (media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said it is not fair to put wholesale blame on the police.

"If we get any specific allegation, we will take action against those officials who will be found involved in such illegal practice," he said.

Asked about the allegation that ruling party men are involved in extorting money from hawkers, Shah Alam Murad, general secretary of Dhaka City South Awami League, said he didn't know anything about it.

He said some of the party men may be involved in it, but none from his unit was involved in extortion.

On Thursday, a clash between hawkers and staffs of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) broke out during an eviction drive in Gulistan area.

Wielding firearms, some ruling party men joined the clash that began around 2:00pm when a DSCC team went to the underpass market in Gulistan to remove illegal makeshift shops from its pavements.

The ruling party men fired blank shots during the clash. Around 500 shops on footpaths were vandalised.

During a visit to Gulistan area yesterday, hawkers were seen repairing their shops on footpaths.

Some of them said the DSCC team went there to evict shops from the pavements of the underpass market, not their stalls on footpaths. Their stalls were damaged though they were not involved in the clash.

Seeking anonymity, a DSCC official said the city corporation evicted hawkers from footpaths in several drives in Gulistan area over the last six months. But most of them returned and occupied footpaths and roads again with the help of a section of police officers and some local political leaders.

On different occasions, DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon said they conducted several eviction drives to clear roads and footpaths in Gulistan area but could not succeed because of “some policemen”.

The mayor is expected to hold a meeting with councillors today on the eviction of hawkers from footpaths in line with the High Court order, said the DSCC official.