Geetanjali Krishna: Mandate-ory transport

PEOPLE LIKE THEM

The wedding procession, baraat, took off in three jeeps with great pomp and show and a flurry of dust from the village. It was barely five days to the elections in Gopiganj, and the GT Road was not as crowded as usual.

Zipping along the highway, they were just beginning to think that they would probably get to the bride's place before schedule. But then, some policemen flagged them down.

"We are requisitioning your three jeeps for election duty," the senior-most policeman said. The baraatis were aghast, "but we have to reach the bride's house by sun-down!" they cried.

"That's not our problem," the cops said curtly, "tell your drivers to get his slip signed by us when we've finished our work, and he'll be compensated for diesel and his labour. We're not unreasonable people after all!"

The woebegone and bedraggled baraatis arrived at the bride's home the next day, having hitchhiked on all available means of transport (which meant that they'd had to walk most of the way). During the festivities, discussions on the `reasonable' government officials who used the force of law to deprive people of their jeeps, predominated.

"One of my relatives who works in a carpet factory, had to go 200 km to Ballia during the last elections, with a jeep full of yarn. 'They' actually took his jeep there, leaving him stranded on the road with a mountain of expensive yarn!" said one.

Apparently, the man begged the police to let his jeep go, saying that if anything happened to all that yarn, he'd surely lose his job. But to no avail.

"No amount of coaxing and pleading works," said another of the wedding party, "once they've caught you, there's no escaping!" A jeep driver laughed, saying, "I've escaped them once! They stopped me, and said that I should drive them to a dhaba as they were hungry. It was dinnertime, and my family would have worried if I'd not reached home on time. So, when I saw they were busy eating, I made my escape!"

Even though the government compensates jeep owners for their time and diesel, the money often takes as long as six months in coming "� far too long for people who depend on what they earn daily to run their households.

"And the compensation is given only if the jeep driver has the signatures of the election officers. But normally drivers are so harassed by the time their forced election duty ends, that they don't want to go to any officer. What if they're caught again?" said one of the men there. The jeep driver said frankly, "that's why many drivers I know just claim extra diesel, instead of waiting six months to get paid Rs300!"

The compensation also does nothing to ease the sheer inconvenience of getting offloaded whenever and wherever. One driver said that even when police from these parts had to go on election duty to Jammu and Kashmir, they took vehicles from Gopiganj. "No one wanted to go so far "� but as if we had any option," said he wryly.

Consequently, few people dare to take their jeeps out during election time. Which means, no public transport and substantially reduced traffic on the GT Road, during election time.

Since this also wedding season, jeep-taxis lose a lot of business by lying low. "We earn as much as Rs 1000 a day during the wedding season normally," said the jeep driver who'd escaped election duty once, "but I'd rather stay home and not earn that money "� than get caught and be forced to do election duty!"