MC starts charging increased parking fee

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 19

Visitors were surprise to know that the Municipal Corporation of Ludhiana had started charging increased parking fee at Feroze Gandhi Market.

As parking fee has been doubled, the visitors are charged Rs 10 for a two-wheeler and Rs 20 for a four-wheeler.

Earlier, the parking fee for two-wheelers and four-wheelers was Rs 5 and Rs 10, respectively.

A shopkeeper at the market said the Municipal Corporation had started charging increased parking fee from Monday. Currently, the MC is handling the parking sites at the market by using a mobile App for issuing tickets.

During the tenure of the SAD-BJP government, the Department of Local Government had fixed parking fee – Rs 5 for two-wheelers and Rs 10 for four-wheelers, sources said.

Kapil Arora of the Council of Engineers said, “The civic body should not increase the parking rates. We would complain to the Department of Local Government in this regard.”

Slamming the civic body for increasing the parking rates, BJP district vice-president, Parminder Mehta, said on the one hand, the Congress government claimed that no new tax had been introduced in the annual budget of the state, but on the other hand, the civic body had started charging increased parking fee from visitors.

“The MC’s move would put extra burden on visitors. Moreover, the parking rates have been increased without making any announcement,” he said.

Municipal Commissioner Kanwalpreet Kaur Brar said the Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC) had already increased the parking fee several days ago. Mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu, who heads the F&CC, could not be contacted for his comments.

However, Senior Deputy Mayor Sham Sunder Malhotra, who is also a member of the F&CC, said, “I am unaware of any increase in the parking fee. I have no information about any such proposal.”

Sources said the parking contractors had been demanding from the MC to increase the fee.

Fleecing was very common at many parking lots, which were being handled by some private contractors.

After finding violations, the MC had asked the contractors to leave parking sites, including Feroze Gandhi Market and several others, but the civic body had not blacklisted any erring contractor.