Hyderabad: It’s past midnight, the bustling market near Charminar is slowly emptying as the hawkers start shutting down for the day. Fifty-nine-year-old Mohammed Haneef is stacking up his wares and moving his cart to a corner. Mr Haneef is a worried man, as he has been for the last two weeks. Before he leaves, agents of the moneylender will walk up, and he has to pay them the interest on the loan he took. Just like most days he will have to pay more than the day’s profit. Mr Haneef will pay them and walk back home with a heavy heart thinking that this year too his four-member family will have to suffer.

Like hundreds of other seasonal vendors in the Old City, Mr Haneef had also taken a loan from an illegal moneylender when Ramzan began. Mr Haneef, who sells sweets every Ramzan, depends on loan sharks for his capital. “Most days I am left with no money because of the interest I pay. Only when sales are high I can earn something,” says Mr Haneef, who does petty jobs during the rest of the year.

Hundreds of Ramzan special vendors and hawkers in Charminar, Madina Market, Pathargatti, Puranapul and other markets in the city have the same story. The monthly interest rate of the illegal moneylenders in the Old City is 20 to 30 per cent and vendors have to pay in daily instalments. Most loan sharks will thus fatten their pockets by the end of Ramzan while the vendors will suffer huge losses.

“People who do odd jobs become vendors during Ramzan as the markets are lively in parts of the Old City. They invest in sweets, fruits, other edibles, clothes, ornaments and Ramzan special items. However, 95 per cent of them do not have capital. So they depend on illegal moneylenders despite the high interest rates,” said Mr Mohammed Abdul Akram, a researcher with the Yugantar Resource Centre who has been studying socio-economic issues in Old City.

If rain comes, the vendors suffer more, as they have to pay for tarpaulin sheets for their carts and buyers drop. Most loan sharks have criminal backgrounds or have rowdy sheeters as their henchmen. They use violence to extort money from their victims. Last year, a trader, Md Javed from Chatta Bazar, was stabbed to death in broad daylight by illegal financier Hassan bin Ibrahim al Zabri.

Police helpless sans pleas:

The south zone police, which had earlier conducted a crackdown on illegal financiers, is now focused on law and order issues and loan sharks are making the best of it. Police sources say that they have not received any complaints about illegal moneylenders since Ramzan started and it is difficult to go after financiers without complaints. However, the police has now started using the Goonda Act (PD Act) against illegal moneylenders and two people have already been jailed.

Zonal DCP V. Satyanarayana said that taking action against moneylenders has been top priority but the police had to concentrate on law and order issues in order to make sure that no communal incidents took place in the Old City. Police says that people are reluctant to lodge complaints against moneylenders. Mr Satyanara-yana said the police would keep moneylenders under surveillance and tackle them one by one using the Preventive Detention Act.

Another issue that the cops face is the fickleness of complainants who change their versions as the cases progress. "Even if a person comes forward to lodge a complaint, may be after being tortured by a lender, there is a possibility that he might withdraw the case. It could be due to fear or some sort of settlement between him and the lender," said another official. Police can book illegal moneylenders under the Telangana Money Lending Act, IPC Section 384 (for extortion), 506 (for criminal intimidation) and even 420 (for cheating) based on complaints. Last December, cops had arrested 60 moneylenders from the Old City during a special drive. However, no such drives have taken place this year.

Experts for government help:

Experts say the only way to eliminate illegal financiers is government intervention, that is by launching schemes through which small traders can take loans. The minority department and other stakeholders can initiate such programmes easily. However, even existing schemes are inactive and funds worth crores lapse every financial year.

According to social activists, during the last financial year, the State Minorities Finance Corporation’s bankable scheme, which gives financial assistance to small traders with subsidised loans, did not give a single loan despite having Rs 95 crore.

The TS government also had decided to set up small cooperative banking units in the Old City and other parts of the city where money lending is rampant. The idea was to link banking with the Telangana State Minorities Finance Corporation and give loans to the needy at minimal interest rates. However, nothing has materialised so far.