Watch out: Dilli Ka Thug is on prowl

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">NEW DELHI: For all those of you who believe in the term ''value for money'', it is a matter of utmost importance to meet the subject of our city report - the intrepid <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Dilli Ka </span>Thug. <br /><br />He is everywhere, from tampering with humble vegetable scales or electricity meters to a more sophisticated fraud wherein strangers pick up loans against your property.Interested? Read on.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Heavy matter: Weights thug</span><br /><br />The net weight mentioned on the namkeen packet you buy may say that it is 250 gms, but Delhi weights and measures department officials say that in 80 per cent of the cases, the value is far less. The violation of Packaged Commodities Rules (PCR) is the most rampant in Delhi. <br /><br />In the month of March alone, 373 cases were registered against various dealers for cheating on the weight of quantities.<br /><br />Not just that, the 500 gms-weight used by the greengrocer is somehow always less than that even as you keep wondering why your monthly food budget is zooming through the roof. And if you thought that the fuel you buy for your vehicle is pure, think again. <br /><br />On March 1, a case was registered with the Chanakyapuri police station against a petrol pump run by petroleum major Hindustan Petroleum (HP) for adulterated fuel.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Official </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="" font-style:="" italic="">jugaad</span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">: Construction thug</span><br /><br />Have you built a basement, a jacuzzi on the third floor, beauty parlour on the fourth and a terrace garden on the fifth? Don''t worry. Before you can blink an eyelid, not only will the notice for your ''unauthorised'' construction vanish, but so will the ''inspections''. <br /><br />According to a vigilance department inquiry, 700 municipal employees are facing departmental action for sending in false completion certificates. Of these, approximately 350 cases are from the building department. <br /><br />"Matters have come to such a head that almost every second person in the engineering department is either facing an inquiry, has been chargesheeted or even worse, has been suspended. There are no qualified people to head important projects," a vigilance department official said.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">High voltage: </span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="" font-style:="" italic="">Bijli</span><span style="" font-weight:="" bold=""> thug</span><br /><br />Just tell him which meter and the <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">bijli</span> thug can ''fix it'' for you. Slowing down electro-magnetic meters is a well-established practice, but Delhi''s talented people have even found a way to deal with the tamper-proof electronic meters. <br /><br />"Consumers run four air-conditioners and pay a monthly bill of Rs 800-900. That is not possible without connivance of our own officials at some level," a private company official said.<br /><br />Citing the case of a multi-national corporation (MNC), a power department official said: "The MNC had run up a bill of Rs 2 crore. They approached the local meter reader, greased his palms and before you knew it, the department had to shell out a sum of Rs 2 lakh to the company."<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Property games: Land thug</span><br /><br />This new breed of cheats mortgages another''s property for a bank loan. After the loan is granted to the conman, he mysteriously disappears and the real owner of the property ends up receiving a warrant of attachment from the debt recovery tribunal.<br /><br />Deputy commissioner of police (economic offences wing) Dinesh Bhatt said: "Complaints are pouring in. In some of the cases, the cheating amount has touched more than Rs 50 lakh." <br /><br />According to him, availing a loan by mortgaging somebody else''s property is no easy task. "Besides the cheats, bank officials, patwaris and officers from the sub-divisional magistrate''s office are also involved in this fraud. Before the loan is granted, bank officials have to examine the property-related papers and also inspect the site. In all the cases, the property papers submitted to the bank have been forged," Bhatt said.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Wrong diagnosis: Medical thug</span><br /><br />Does your doctor have a good bedside manner? Dr Evil has much more than that as commissions from pathological laboratories, kickbacks from private nursing homes and hospitals for referring patients there and ''gifts'' from pharma companies for prescribing costly drugs make their way to his pockets.<br /><br />A consultant doctor with a prominent private hospital in south Delhi admitted on conditions of anonymity, "There is a predetermined commission for admitting patients. In fact, there is a minimum number of patients that a doctor has to admit every month. The number varies with the size and prestige of the hospital."<br /><br />So, how do you outsmart the <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Dilli ka</span> Thug? Knowledge is power, so it is important that you know important things like building by-laws, do not share property information with strangers, take a second opinion while seeing a doctor and shop where there are digital scales. <br /><br />Watch your back, and pray hard, for if all else fails, there is always God.<br /><br />(<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">With inputs from Bhadra Sinha and Abantika Ghosh</span>)</div> </div>