Congress Alleges Rs.180-Crore Rickshaw ‘Sticker Hafta’ Scam in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad | Gujarat — Auto rickshaw drivers in the financial capital of Gujarat, Ahmedabad have to cough up ‘hafta’ money to the tune of Rs 180 crore per annum to the police and its administrators for doing safe and secure business of transporting the passengers from one place to the other. The Congress party has made a serious allegation that the police and its administrators are collecting ‘protection money’ by pasting stickers on the shuttle autos plying on the roads of Ahmedabad. 

The Congress has released a video claiming that they are collecting illegal hafta of Rs 1000 per rickshaw per month. It means that the auto driver has to pay Rs 12,000 per month as protection money to the police department. This way, there are over 7 lakh autorickshaws plying on the Ahmedabad roads and that they would be paying roughly Rs 180 crore per annum to the police. 

According to the Congress leaders, the reason behind pasting stickers on the autorickshaws is to identify that the auto is paying protection money to the police. Even if he is stopped by the policemen in other areas, the auto driver is not harassed and he is allowed to go. 

Gujarat Pradesh Congress spokesperson Hemang Rawal has also released a video along with this claim, in which a rickshaw driver confirms this claim. In the video, the rickshaw puller says, the ‘vahivatdar’ comes to collect the protection money amount of Rs 1,000 every month. If a sticker is affixed, they are not stopped at any of the traffic point, even if they violate the traffic rule by transporting more than five people. 

Furthermore, he said that no matter how many different departments there are in Gujarat, each department finds its own new methods of corruption. At one time, the late BJP Chief Minister Vijaybhai Rupani had said that two departments are the most corrupt in Gujarat. One is revenue and the other is police.

Extortion is collected every month by police administrators

A special type of sticker is made for the shuttles that run inside the rickshaws in Ahmedabad and this sticker is not from the police station, but a sticker is placed on the front of every shuttle rickshaw that runs. The police administrators of this sticker illegally collect 1,000 every month as extortion. 1,000 every month means 12,000 rupees per rickshaw per year.

If the poor rickshaw puller does not put a sticker, then fine action will be taken

“Look at this systematic corruption…. Every month, its sticker changes, when Diwali comes, it seems normal that these are Diwali sticker lamps, but, they are not Diwali lamps, that sticker is a form of corruption. Rickshaws are repeatedly stopped at points and if there is a sticker, they are allowed to go. The rickshaw of the poor rickshaw puller who has not put a sticker is detained and fine action is taken. I myself have also made a video by sitting in the rickshaw and discussing it with the driver” said Rawal.

Releasing the video, Hemang Rawal says that if such kind of corruption is happening and there is corruption in the police department too, then it is the responsibility of the Home Minister to investigate it. When the cultured Home Minister repeatedly comes to the press for small matters, I request him to take up this issue seriously. This sticker scam is a crores of rupees worth scam. This is a systematic scam and if it is a scam of such a big amount of money, it is undeniable that its installments reach Gandhinagar.

The Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee demands that an investigation committee be formed as soon as possible to investigate the alleged installments of more than thousands of crores of this rickshaw sticker scam in Gujarat.

“ I am ready to give whatever evidence I have to present to the government. Rickshaws should be allowed in crowded areas. If legal permission is given, corruption sticker scandals worth crores of rupees will be stopped” said Rawal.