Frustrated residents in Mumbai have managed to register a local official as a one of the city's thousands of street vendors to prove a point about how infuriating a new set of rules are.
Residents complain that hundreds of illegal street vendors are coming into Dadar - a bustling, residential area in central Mumbai - but instead of evicting them, city officials are charging a fee and registering them, The Times of India reports. So a group of residents applied for a stall and registered it under the name of Mumbai's municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte to see if anyone would notice - but no one did.
"They gave me a form and an acknowledgement slip," says resident Swapnil Karbhari. "I wrote my name as Sitaram Kunte in their register, but they did not ask for any proof. They were only interested in collecting the Rs 100 (£0.98) for the form." Flustered city officials have promised a probe into how the top commissioner's name could have passed unnoticed. "We will take stern action against those responsible for this," says Anand Wagralkar, an official in charge of the vendor survey. "It is shocking that such a registration was done. It looks like there was carelessness.