Hyderabad: It is common for cops to eat at street vendors and leave without paying, and in spite of running legal operations, the poor vendors can’t muster the courage to ask the cops to pay. RTI activist, Syed Shah Ali Hussaini, is trying to change this.
The 28-year-old business analyst says, “On May 15, I saw two cops drinking lemonade (at DLF, Gachibowli) and leave without paying. On questioning, one of them said that they didn’t have to pay and the other started questioning me ‘Who are you? Did we take lemonade from you?’ I told him that I would inform the higher officials and he said ‘do whatever you want to’ and left. I got in touch with Cyberabad IT Corridor circle inspector and later in the day, I was informed by the lemonade vendor that the police officials had come down to pay him. While I was having tea, the cops came back and apologised and asked me to take my complaint back.”
But that was not the end. The next day he saw two other cops refusing to pay the street vendors. This time he complained directly via SMS to the ACP and DCP and action was again taken immediately. Hussaini says that the case is not limited to the vendors near DLF but across the city. “I also found out from the vendors that they pay a lot of money to the cops. But due to lack of evidence, I couldn’t lodge a complaint.”
So, what inspired Hussaini to become an RTI activist? “I thought that as a common man, I can and should be able to question the government and get issues resolved. That is where I got the confidence from initially.”
Syed also believes that if at least one person in their respective area starts questioning the government then the city would be a better place to live in.
He says, “Every department has a grievance redressal mechanism. The Hyderabad and Cyberabad police websites also have the numbers of the ACP, DCP and others. One should keep these numbers handy. Madhapur zone ACP, S. Sreedhar, and Cyber Corridor inspector, J. Ramesh Kumar, have been very prompt whenever such issues were brought to their notice.”
