Pay or Perish !

Come September, and the season of festivals is at our doorstep. While on the one hand it fills our hearts with joy, on the other, it brings memories of forcible collection of donations. The anti-socials see it as an opportunity to operate side by side the well-meaning people to conceal their real intention. While there is no coercion by the latter, the undesirables do not hesitate to flex their muscles. Whether one likes it or not, one has to pay the amount howsoever exorbitant quoted by them may be. The choice is very simple -- pay or perish !

The menace is assuming alarming proportions with every passing year. Many of the notorious characters who seek donations as a matter of right barge into houses and business establishments to take their pound of flesh. If anyone dares to protest, he has had it. Either instant justice is meted out to him or the threat to teach him a lesson is given. As there is no protection from the powers that be one has to, willy-nilly, cough up the amount.

The display of force spills over to the roads also. Hordes of youngsters make the bus, truck and tempo drivers their targets. As there is no respite from these up and coming Rangdars, they surrender. They have to undergo this humiliation in every Mohalla they pass through. On the highways, too, all kinds of obstruction materials are kept in readiness to block the roads.
If the police is alert and keeps a tab on the movement of these so called ‘tax collectors’ the nuisance can well be under control.