By Express News Service
HYDERABAD: Faiyaz’s is not a lone case. Shocked with the footpath renting mafia, when the traffic police enquired further with the street vendors and footpath encroachers, many of their stories turned out to be similar to that of Faiyaz.
Not just the brokers and agents are squeezing money from the roadside vendors, but owners of some big showrooms located in the central zone area of the city are also making the best of this ‘opportunity’.
The vendors are asked to pay anywhere between Rs 200 and Rs 500 everyday to a shop owner to put up a tent and run business in front of their shop, on the footpaths.
“There are also some agents who give away the carts on rent on daily basis and allot some space in front of their shops, which otherwise is public space, and are earn money. The shop owners also collect money from petty vendors for letting them run their businesses. There are several who share stories similar to Faiyaz,” said M Suman Kumar, inspector, Abids traffic police station.
The inspector said that vendors who sell mangoes, lemon juice and other small items pay `200 a day to the shop owners, while people who sell other electronic goods and clothes etc pay `500 a day.
Responding to a query, the inspector said, “Earlier, the encroachment and extortion mafia was almost neglected in the area by some officials for reasons best known to them. Encroachment of footpaths is not seen as a big offence with the penalties being very low. However, extorting money from vendors for encroaching is a criminal offence. We have warned the businessmen in Abids to not resort to such criminal activities.”
Biz spills on the road
Interestingly, there are also several who repeatedly encroach the roads and footpaths, claiming that public doesn’t show interest in entering the shops but purchase everything standing on the road.Giving the example of an eatery, the inspector said, “A roadside eatery owner who was penalised for obstructing the pathway for vehicles by installing a mobile food court said that though he took a commercial space on rent, public visited his eatery only when the business came onto the road, and not when he was cooking inside and serving outside.”
DCP (Traffic I) LS Chauhan said, “We have been able to deal with footpath encroachers in other police station limits, but in Abids, people are regularly doing it.”
48,990 cases against roadside vendors
Since January 2016, the city traffic police have registered 48,990 cases under section 39 (b) of the City Police Act against roadside vendors for encroaching pedestrian ways and pathways. In 2018 alone, about 5,298 cases were registered and `13.19 lakh has been collected as penalty.
