The pumpkin that is hung on both sides of Senthil Kumar’s lorry has little to do with the tradition of warding off “evil eyes”. Lorry owners in this hub of heavy vehicles in Sankagiri in Namakkal district display the vegetables and fruits prominently as a message to the police.
“Many of us here deal with perishables like vegetables and fruits. When the police ‘ maamool ’ (extortion) menace became too much, we had to do this to tell the officers that time is valuable and they shouldn’t stop us unnecessarily,” points out Senthil Kumar, who operates a lone lorry in the Tamil Nadu-Odisha route.
For small-scale lorry owners, harassment by police officers across borders remains a big factor affecting their profits. The demand for bribes has hit them so hard that they now want manifestos of political parties to provide a plan to put an end to the menace.
Holding several sheets of paper in his hand, C. Ravikumar, a lorry owner-cum-driver from Erode, says a trip to Kolkata would entail spending at least Rs 3,000 on bribes and penalties. “The moment you reach Andhra Pradesh border, RTO officials take money without providing any receipts. Then as we proceed, police officers halt the vehicle at many points and come up with bizarre explanations to take money again,” he points out.
Since perishables have to be delivered within 24 hours, hardly any of these drivers resist. “Even going an hour late could cost us the entire load,” he says.
The vehicle owners say they had represented the matter to the government and political parties several times, but none seem to take the problem seriously.
“We had sent representations to the Karnataka government since it is there the problem is most severe. But nothing has happened. We hope the State government takes it up at the official level,” said M.R. Kumarasamy, president of the Tamil Nadu Lorry Owners’ Federation.
Those dealing with perishables like vegetables and fruits are the worst hit
