Veeramani is dead, but his legacy lives on

CHENNAI: The AIADMK regime might have gotten rid of the notorious gangster, Veeramani of Ayodhyakuppam, but now the task at hand is to streamline the hawkers in the coast of the Marina. These hawkers are controlled by two groups supported by the local DMK functionaries, who extort money from thousands of them. Their collection every week runs into well over Rs 3 lakh.Under the title of Anna Sirukadai Vyabarigal Sangam, two groups are allegedly extorting money from the hawkers in the name of maintenance and electricity supply. These members have liaison with the local DMK functionaries and police personnel to prevent any interference from the Chennai Corporation.“In return, the group members pay mamool to the DMK local functionaries and also allocate some shops for them. Also, when the party organises a political function, the groups supply a person from each shop to make for a bigger crowd, and also pay for the arrangements,” said a group of hawkers.As thousands of tourists throng the Marina Beach every day, around 700 hawkers have set up shops in the strip of land for nearly half-a-kilometre, from the MGR statue to the beach front. This apart, around 400 shops were set up along side the service road of the beach.When Veeramani was alive, he used to be the leader of the sangam and controlled the hawkers’ business, but after his death, two gangs took control of the area and claimed they would improve the hawkers’ life. One group called Keel Sangam, controls 700 hawker shops located in the strip and other group called Mel Sangam controls the 400 shops on the service road.“We need to pay Rs 20 for a shop every week to the members of the sangam.This apart, the members collect Rs 10 for every light bulb we fit in the shop,” said a group of hawkers adding that each shop would have a minimum of three light bulbs, which means they needed to pay Rs 30 per day for electricity.“If we asked why we needed to pay Rs 10 per light bulb, they would stop the power supply to our shop,” claims the hawker, adding that the gang is supplying power through a generator, which would at cost Rs 1,000 per day at most to run.“The sangam earns Rs 3 lakh per week through ‘light bulb collections’ alone.Where does all this money go?” asks the hawker, adding that even when Veeramani was alive, he never exploited small hawkers.When asked about this, the members of the sangam insisted that they were not exploiting the hawkers.They also said they were paying maamool to political parties, besides paying Rs 4,500 every week to the Anna Square local police station, to protect the hawkers. The members also claim that they pay Rs 10,000 as assistance for a hawker’s family, if the breadwinner of the family dies.However, local AIADMK functionaries say that there are around 1,000 shops on the Marina Beach alone and the shops that once used to be temporary, have now been converted to permanent structures. These ‘shops’ now have water connections and power supply.He also added that they were being bought and sold by hawkers at a price between Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. He said that unless the Corporation brought these ‘shops’ under its control, the sangam members would keep exploiting these hawkers.