Nepal, Jan. 19 -- Last Friday when municipal police from Kathmandu Metropolitan City confiscated Manju Kunwar's vegetable cart, a video of her pleading with the personnel not to take away her wares went viral, inviting public criticism against the city authority on social media.

The same video also showed the municipal police load a fruit seller's bicycle onto a truck.

City officials say that they are not allowing anyone to run their businesses on the roads and that Friday's incident was part of their crackdown on street vendors.

But, despite the zero-tolerance approach towards street vendors, it has been revealed that city officials have been receiving kickbacks from some street vendors for allowing them to ply their business.

Three ...