6.7.04
Legal Terrorists:
Having to give terrorists money as we pay tax to our government is very common in Bangladesh. If you don’t have good political support behind you, you will have to give Chada (Tax to terrorists) for every kind of trade you make be it buying or selling a building or building a house or a shop or even in purchasing a piece of land, you will have to pay Chada no matter what. But this chada collection has gone a step further recently. Now it has become a legal demand. The following story will clarify my point.
Commissioner means: One who takes commission
The present commissioner of our area is not an activist of the ruling party. So he doesn’t have any control of this Bayezid Thana. He has to be consent with the fancy title with literally no real power. On the other hand a ruling party activist named Akbar is going to apply for the commissioner position on next election is virtually enjoying all the power a commissioner can enjoy. If something goes wrong people go to him to have the problem solved and he like a village leader solves the problem immediately.
A group of Mastans (a terrorist under any political party’s shelter is called a mastan.) went to a shop of a fish seller one day and demanded 1 lakh(100,000) taka, if not paid he will have to pack up his shop for good. 1 lakh taka is obviously too much for him to pay as his monthly income is no more than 10,000taka.
Finding no other way to convince the mastans with less money he went to Akbar Bhai ( Bhai literary means brother; usually mastans and politicians are called bhai) And Akbar Bhai gave him a nice solution. He said, “ I understand that for a poor man like you it is not possible to pay 1 lakh taka. Don’t worry. You won’t have to pay all of this amount at a time. Just pay 5,000taka per month and you in 2 years the total money will be paid.”
But the shopkeeper didn’t like this beautiful idea; instead he packed for his village home with his belongings.
Story #2:
Mr. Saiful (my uncle’s friend) one day saw a day labourer walking along a road at Bakolia crying. Upon asking the labourer he came to know that a policeman caught him few minutes ago and took 250taka from him forcefully and threatened him that if he tells about this incident to anyone the policeman will file a case against hi. Mr. Saiful then took the labourer to the commissioner of that area. The commissioner then called the policeman in his room and asked about the authenticity of the labourer’s claim. But he couldn’t get any proper response from the policeman instead he was standing saying nothing. With fierce eyes he looked at the policeman for sometime brought all the rage of the world in him and suddenly gave a big slap on the policeman’s face. This sudden unexpected strong slap was too much for him to handle. As a result he fell on the couch beside him. The commissioner then declared, “If I hear anything like this of you again from anyone, that will be your last day on this earth. I’m not going to take any further action against you today…”
The labourer was returned his 250taka afterwards and the commissioner told his to report to him immediately if he falls in any kind of trouble at Bakolia.
|
Commissioner means: One who takes commission
The present commissioner of our area is not an activist of the ruling party. So he doesn’t have any control of this Bayezid Thana. He has to be consent with the fancy title with literally no real power. On the other hand a ruling party activist named Akbar is going to apply for the commissioner position on next election is virtually enjoying all the power a commissioner can enjoy. If something goes wrong people go to him to have the problem solved and he like a village leader solves the problem immediately.
A group of Mastans (a terrorist under any political party’s shelter is called a mastan.) went to a shop of a fish seller one day and demanded 1 lakh(100,000) taka, if not paid he will have to pack up his shop for good. 1 lakh taka is obviously too much for him to pay as his monthly income is no more than 10,000taka.
Finding no other way to convince the mastans with less money he went to Akbar Bhai ( Bhai literary means brother; usually mastans and politicians are called bhai) And Akbar Bhai gave him a nice solution. He said, “ I understand that for a poor man like you it is not possible to pay 1 lakh taka. Don’t worry. You won’t have to pay all of this amount at a time. Just pay 5,000taka per month and you in 2 years the total money will be paid.”
But the shopkeeper didn’t like this beautiful idea; instead he packed for his village home with his belongings.
Story #2:
Mr. Saiful (my uncle’s friend) one day saw a day labourer walking along a road at Bakolia crying. Upon asking the labourer he came to know that a policeman caught him few minutes ago and took 250taka from him forcefully and threatened him that if he tells about this incident to anyone the policeman will file a case against hi. Mr. Saiful then took the labourer to the commissioner of that area. The commissioner then called the policeman in his room and asked about the authenticity of the labourer’s claim. But he couldn’t get any proper response from the policeman instead he was standing saying nothing. With fierce eyes he looked at the policeman for sometime brought all the rage of the world in him and suddenly gave a big slap on the policeman’s face. This sudden unexpected strong slap was too much for him to handle. As a result he fell on the couch beside him. The commissioner then declared, “If I hear anything like this of you again from anyone, that will be your last day on this earth. I’m not going to take any further action against you today…”
The labourer was returned his 250taka afterwards and the commissioner told his to report to him immediately if he falls in any kind of trouble at Bakolia.
|
