Fear Factor at ATMs

It has been nearly a month since a grainy video spooked TV news viewers through its raw Hitchcockian brutality.  A woman enters an ATM kiosk to draw money. A man follows her. Seemed like a regular office goer, clad in a striped shirt and had a shoulder bag. But his sinister intentions become immediately apparent after he brings down the shutter in a jiffy. He demands money from her, but she refuses. Out from his shoulder bag, which many of us may use to carry files and lunch box, comes a large machete and a gun. After assaulting the woman he leaves with cash and a mobile phone.

Barring the minor success of tracking down the stolen mobile phone in Anantapur district, the ATM assailant is proving too smart for the men in khaki. His finger prints don't match with police records, thus showing he is either a first time offender or has come from some other state.

The assailant has also cleverly darted the trap the modern day criminals fall into - making calls on cell phones. Looks like the guy might be a lone ranger. For police it leaves only human intelligence or good old khabari as an option to hunt him down.

The police carried out a reality check of city ATMs and many of them were shuttered due to lack of security measures. The bank where this incident happened had no security guard and even the shutter was not latched on top, making the job of the assailant all the more easy.

To the general public it only meant lots of inconvenience, as they had long unlearned the habit of patiently queuing up at bank cash counters. Later many of them were restored once security guards were deployed, though many others measures suggested by the police remain unfulfilled.

Banks, which had already got many wake up calls, after earlier incidents of burglars decamping with ATM machines,  are still dragging their feet. They claim they will have to call for tenders and seek approvals from their corporate office to implement some of the proposed security measures. Slogans like 'Think global, act local' apparently has little to do with customer's safety!

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Well Oiled Hafta Machinery

We had a rough idea about it all along, but never bothered to fathom the problem. So when The Hindu came up with an in-depth report about the bribes taken by Bangalore's policemen from hawkers, traders, prostitutes, eunuchs and even pavement dwellers, a far more dirty picture emerged.

The hafta collected by beat policemen in the city undergoes a 'suction up' effect (my lame attempt to find an opposite of 'trickle down') and a certain percentage of this booty is passed on to higher officials. Officers above the rank of sub-inspector do not indulge in such menial tasks as hafta collection and hence a portion of the money collected by their subordinates lands on their table.

This system of 'mamool' or 'parallel taxation' is jocularly termed as VAT ka VAT by the traders and the report says that only beggars and handicapped vendors are exempt. Though I find it hard to believe that they indeed spare the beggars. Maybe they approach beggar mafia leaders for the purpose.

The hafta rates are 'floating' and buoys up during festivals. And needless to say India is indeed a land of festivals. So it is as good as it gets for them. A sex worker claims she has to pay 'double' hafta on festival days.

Though in most cases it is the police constable on 'cheetah' bike (a Bajaj Pulsar with cheetah like markings) who goes around collecting money, sometimes they come in 'hoysala' vans and the collection rates go up. It gets even higher when a sub-inspector turns up.

There are also instances of this function being 'outsourced'. The report states that in the busy KR Market there are 2,000 vendors and it would be too much of an effort to go about collecting haftas. Hence the officer there has deployed some persons to carry out the task twice a day. The vendors claim they are not goons, but normal persons, who happen to be jobless. Now how can we say that policemen lack ingenuity and are not keeping up with the times and managerial practices.

Bar owners have to shell out on a daily as well as monthly basis. The daily rates differ among bar owners who down shutters before the curfew time of 11 pm and those who do so later. In addition, all bar owners have to pay a monthly levy at the nearest police station.

Cases of assaults are settled 'amicably' if something upwards of Rs 25,000 is paid and even the most 'peaceful' police stations receive at least two such cases a day.

Hence the gravy train of mamool collection smoothly rolls on with most men in khaki on board.

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