Nearly 350 hawkers, occupying about a kilometre of Indira Road, pay more than Tk 40 lakh in bribe a month, sources said.

The police officers and student leaders never visit the hawkers. There are linemen who collect the money and get small share of it.

Vegetables to wristwatch -- everything is available at this place, as the sellers have occupied not only the footpath but also the rickshaw lane and the main road stretching from the foot-over bridge to Khejurbagan.

"We cannot even walk here. I do not understand how this is going on for years," wondered Samira Zaman, who comes to pick her daughter from Holy Cross School from Indira Road everyday.

According to the hawkers, the toll rate depends on the size of the makeshift shops and the items they sell. For a big shop, the linemen take Tk 400 to Tk 500 a day. Small shops pay Tk 150 to Tk 200.

"We have to pay this to the linemen, student leaders and police officers," said a hawker requesting anonymity.

They alleged that most student leaders are the members of ruling party's student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) of Tejgaon College. "If anybody wants to have a space on this footpath, they need help from the student leaders," another hawker alleged.

Even the floating hawkers of the area are not spared. They accused the policemen of collecting toll regularly from them.

When asked, the officers at Tejgaon Police Station denied the allegation. Kamrul Islam, the officer-in-charge (OC) said, "We do not talk to the press. If you have any specific allegation, you can file a complaint."

Hawkers said the linemen collect tolls after 8:00pm. In some cases hawkers go to the nearby traffic police box or police station to pay. But the duty officers at the Farmgate police box denied the allegation.

"We don't want to see any hawker selling goods on the footpath. They cause sufferings to pedestrians and vehicles," said Obaidul Haq, on-duty Traffic Inspector (TI) at the police box.

Shah Alam, a powerful lineman who runs a multi-storeyed hotel opposite to Ananda Cinema Hall allegedly takes a large share of the collected toll, hawkers said. But Shah Alam, when contacted, said, "I am not collecting tolls anymore. Some other linemen are involved in it."

He said the policemen at Tejgaon old airport outpost, police box at Farmgate and the local police station are collecting tolls.

M Kohinoor Miah, deputy commissioner, West of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) said the allegation is false. "If we find any allegation against policemen, we punish them after enquiry," he said.

The Indira Road footpath was made hawker-free three years back and hawkers were not allowed for about one and a half years. But they came back after making an underhand dealing with the police, sources said. Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) officials said they have abandoned their idea of evicting hawkers as the eviction drives absolutely failed. "We have tried at least five times to evict hawkers from the area this year. They come back as soon as we leave the place," said a senior DCC officer.

"The government has decided to free all footpaths from illegal occupation. We can evict hawkers but it depends on cooperation from the police department," the offer said on condition of anonymity.

"We have sent letters to the police seeking help to evict the hawkers from footpaths several times but there was no reply," he added.