By Rupsa Chakraborty

Imagine, you need to use the restroom urgently and someone insists you pay a huge sum of money for the same! A typical case of cashing in on someone’s desperation.

A resident of Jalandhar (in Punjab) shares his miserable experience when he was forced to use the restroom in the railway station there. After consuming food at a Mexican restaurant, he had stomach issues and needed to use the restroom urgently.  As he attempted to leave the toilet after using it, he realised he could not open the main door as someone had locked it from outside.

A Railway attendant, spoke from the other side, that he could break the lock for the sake of our respondent if a sum of Rs 2,500 was paid to him.  Our respondent was forced to meet the demand to get out.

One of our respondents from Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) depicted the gloomy situation when he was forced to pay Rs. 500 to use a public toilet.  The chap manning the entrance, demanded the sum to permit him entry inside. “I had no option since it was urgent and finally ended up paying it,” he writes (http://ipaidabribe.com/bribe-central/bribe-paid-using-municipal-toilet).

Similar reports from various parts of the country have been filed on our portal.  While the sum demanded is generally much smaller (ranging from an extra Rs 2 to Rs 10)  than those highlighted above, it is high time that such a crucial public convenience is kept free from bribe.