Ram Dev Prasad aka Ganja Ustaad, as customers call him fondly, waits patiently under a blue tarpaulin in his workshop beyond the narrow alleys and open drains of east Delhi for his daily supply of motor scrap. Soon, it will be time for the mechanic, now in his 50s, to start on Jugaad, a vehicle he fashions using old parts of different vehicles, mainly decrepit scooters and pedal rickshaws, used to carry goods and people.Thousands of rickshaw pullers in east Delhi and Noida use his mechanised rickshaws to earn their daily bread."I come from Bhagalpur in Bihar. Earlier, I used to supply goods on a rickshaw. The work has become much easier for me now as my rickshaw has an engine. It saves my energy and time," says Ashfaq Alam, a Jugaad rider in his early 20s, who works in the Noida Sector 8 market.The vehicles are popular in busy marketplaces and border areas of Delhi, including the Azadpur Mandi, where scores of Jugaads can be seen transporting fruits and vegetables from one place to another.Another satisfied customer, who has bought two Jugaads, says: "A Jugaad can be bought for Rs 18,000-25,000, depending upon the efficiency of the parts. It is a great invention for people like us."But all is not well for the Jugaad riders and the people dependent upon them for their transportation needs. In 2012, the Supreme Court directed all states to ensure that these make-shift vehicles, deemed dangerous, went off the road.The decision created a lot of confusion as the traffic policemen could not issue any challans against these vehicles, which have no registration numbers. The department then started confiscating all the Jugaads.Gautambuddha Nagar ARTO Amitabh Chaturvedi says: "We are trying our best to implement the Motor Vehicles Act and confiscating the unregistered vehicles. But it will take more time and manpower to remove every such vehicle from the road."The move hit the shop owners in Noida and east Delhi markets hard as they were dependent on rickshaw pullers to transport their goods in the narrow bylanes in the area. "Our market in Sector 8 manufactures almost 90 per cent of furniture and tiles required in Noida. We are completely dependent on Jugaad riders as mini trucks are expensive to rent," says Vishu Sharma, who works at a furniture store.Rahul Bharadwaj, who owns a furniture store in east Delhi, says: "The rural areas of NCR usually have narrow lanes and even mini-trucks cannot enter there. These vehicles can enter any lane and pass through chaotic places. They are fit for survival in the market."

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Most of the Jugaads are off highways and main roads now but some riders continue to ply them on the inner roads, where no other option is available. "They cannot seize our vehicles because the nearby areas rely on us for transportation of ration and daily necessities. Some markets in Old Delhi cannot even function without Jugaads. How can they snatch the livelihood of thousands of people?" says a Jugaad owner."I think even police constables do not know what should be done with the Jugaads. Sometimes they confiscate them, sometimes they demand fine. But they cannot issue a challan against these vehicles as they are not registered," says a shopkeeper in Mayur Vihar, who gets his good transported via Jugaads.