Bicycle thieves
Published by Yazad Jal December 4th, 2004 in GovernanceThese senseless attacks on livelihood really get my goat.
BMC demands Rs 1,200 for a bicycle
On Wednesday, 74-year-old Mohammad Rangwala — who works for the Royal Society of Mumbai as a collector for the daily saving scheme — left his bicycle outside a shop at Abdul Rehman Street as he went in to collect money at the building.A BMC squad, which happened to be on clean-up duty there, immediately confiscated the bicycle. “I ran after them, but they did not stop. They told me to collect the bicycle from the BMC yard after paying the fine,” Rangwala said.
The senior citizen was in for a shock when he went to claim his bicycle. He was told he could get it back if he paid Rs 200 as fine and a penalty of Rs 1,000.
“I had bought the bicycle 18 years ago for Rs 450 and its worth is not more than Rs 50 today, but if I didn’t pay the amount, the BMC would not part with my bicycle,” said Rangwala.
Abdul Rehman Street is perenially blocked with cars, mostly double or even triple parked. And BMC’s “clean squad” picks up a bicycle.
*are* what really get my goat.
I bow to the new breed of grammar Nazis. Correction has been made, O great Aadisht!
For the pleasure of those who wonder, the first line of this post originally read: “These senseless attacks on livelihood is what really gets my goat.”
tsk tsk..heights of corruption..seems like its a “vicious cycle”.
These days, car owners leave their drivers inside the cars when they ‘park’ in ‘No parking zones’. And I’ve seen these drivers act arrogantly when approached by a policeman with a towing van in tow. Just a couple of days back, I witnessed a fracas in which the driver actually threatened the policeman with, “Arre sahab ko aane do fir dekhta hoon kaise leke jaata hain gaadi!“. And the policeman had to actually move on afraid that the owner might turn out to be someone ‘important’!!
Is there any surprise if these policemen then take their frustration out on a lowly bicycle?!
Hey, my driver says that too. But then, if somebody’s waiting in a car it wouldn’t count as parking.
In a no parking zone you can’t even “wait”, the car has to keep moving.