Bikano namkeens serving as change across MCD toll booths

Each namkeen packet is given as change to a commercial vehicle driver/passenger if they give Rs 50, instead of the toll amount of Rs 45.

On an average, some 20 packets come back to the office.

The Bikano packets began being offered as change only a year back, says enquiry officer BL Sen.

At the MCD toll booth in Ghazipur, on the Delhi-Ghaziabad border, the tax collector’s counter is littered with receipt slips, coins, and rupee notes. Among these staid items in the decrepit toll booth, though, several colourful packets of Bikano namkeens stand out. What are Bikano namkeen packets — all priced at Rs 5 each— doing at an MCD toll booth, you would think. Not that the bored tax collectors are munching on them. They dare not either, for these Rs 5 Bikano namkeen packets are not meant to be their afternoon snack. Rather, each namkeen packet is given as change to a commercial vehicle driver/passenger if they give Rs 50, instead of the toll amount of Rs 45. “Quite often, we don’t have enough Rs 5 coins or notes. The notes that we have are often tattered and thus rejected by the wayfarers, so we give them these Bikano packets,” says the tax collector who didn’t want to be named.

The taxi drivers are seen grumpily receiving these Bikano packets as “all the Rs 5 coins are over” already at 1.30 pm. “We get some 50 packets every day, and most get used up,” says the tax collector.

The Bikano namkeens have been serving as change across six MCD toll booths — two in Ghazipur, and one each in Anand Vihar, Kapashera, Badarpur, and Tikri — says BL Sen, inquiry officer, at SMS-AAMW Tollways Pvt Ltd, the company that manages the booths. He blames logistics for forcing commuters to part with their Rs 5 and munch on moong dal, peanuts or bhujia instead. “Each of the toll booths is some 3-5 km away from our nearest office. It would be quite a task for someone to come all the way from booth to the office, collect Rs 5 coins/notes, and then go back to the booth. No commuter would wait for so long. So, we give, on an average, some 50 Bikano packets to make up for lack of Rs 5 coins/notes,” he says. But why not deposit enough Rs 5 coins at the booths? “It’s not like all the 50 packets get used up. Sometimes, we do have enough Rs 5 coins, and the un-used packets are returned to us. On an average, some 20 packets come back to the office,” he says.

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The Bikano packets began being offered as change only a year back, says Sen, and before that “Haldiram packets were offered”. “Our deal with Haldiram lasted some four months. The Bikano deal is still on. And the MCD has approved it,” says SL Sen.

The MCD, on the other hand, claims “it has no role” in the exercise. “We’ve outsourced the management of the booths to a private party. We have no say over how they manage their change,” says MCD press and information director Yogendra Singh Mann. But is it a good practice? “Ideally, it’s not good. One should get their money back. But it’s not a bad thing either. At least they are giving something worth that money to the commuters. They are not keeping it with themselves,” he says.

That logic, however, doesn’t impress commuters. Sushil Kumar, a driver with a radio taxi operator who “always charges a customer for the Bikano packets” recalls an incident: “Once I was alone at the Kapashera border. The toll guys, as always, were giving me the Rs 5 Bikano packet. I tried to give them a taste of their own medicine. I offered Rs 30 and a Rs 15 Rajnigandha packet, instead of Rs 45. They refused to take the Rs 15 Rajnigandha packet, demanding full Rs 45. I then questioned them why we should accept a Bikano packet then, instead of Rs 5 change. When I dialled the police helpline, their boss came and gave me Rs 5,” he says.

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