NEW DELHI, March 10: Maya Mamtani, a manager in a multinational bank, stopped her car at the Barakhambha road red light while returning home one evening. A young girl rapped on her windshield and after wiping a portion of the glass with a dirty tattered cloth, asked for money. Mamtani refused. The girl spat at the windshield and moved over to the next car.At the next light, a woman wearing Rajasthani clothes with a baby in her arms and a bulging stomach begged for money. An angry Mamtani refused again. This time the woman banged the side of her car with a stick.
But what happened at the ITO red light prompted Mamtani to rush to this newspaper office. Three children, around 13 to 14 years of age, approached her car. One begged for money, the other tried to sell a newspaper while the third took out the petrol pipe from under the rear left door. The car stalled. It was past 9 p.m. and the 33-year-old manager panicked. Two newspaper vendors pushed the car and charged Rs 50 for it. Another vendor sellingscrewdrivers took another Rs 50 for ``repairing'' the car. Mamtani knew she was being taken for a ride but was helpless.
The police constables on duty just looked on. The vendors would have gotten away with it but for a good Samaritan who stopped to intervene. The 65-year-old man too had fallen prey to similar ploy. ``Don't pay them,'' he shouted as he stopped his car. The vendors slunk away and the police realised it too late. ``Can you believe it, they put a small wooden block in the petrol pipe located under the left rear door of my Maruti 800 car. They did the same with the Maruti 800 car of the old gentleman who helped me. They must be doing it every day to so many car drivers. But nobody is checking these beggars,'' an agitated Mamtani said. Whose responsibility is it to check these beggars and vendors at red lights? Why are red lights suddenly developing as a cottage industry where you can buy anything from car tyres to cigarette lighters. The traffic policemen either turn a blind eye to thistraffic hazard or have their interests involved.
Qamar Ahmed, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said that the police does not turn a blind eye to beggars and vendors but keeps shooing them away. ``But our primary responsibility is regulating traffic. We have neither the time nor the manpower to forcibly remove beggars and vendors from the red lights. The Social Welfare Department of the city government and the Delhi Police are jointly responsible for removing the beggars from the red lights and the streets,'' he said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
