Fans fleeced in the name of parking fee in Mohali

CHANDIGARH:The parking area, outside the PCA IS Bindra Stadium, which is usually free for vehicles, was hijacked by the employees of a private contractor, and fans who had come to enjoy the India-New Zealand match, were charged Rs 50 to park their vehicle in the Phase-IX market, here this afternoon.

Ind-New Zealand match parking slip. Photo by writer

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 23

The parking area, outside the PCA IS Bindra Stadium, which is usually free for vehicles, was hijacked by the employees of a private contractor, and fans who had come to enjoy the India-New Zealand match, were charged Rs 50 to park their vehicle in the Phase-IX market, here this afternoon.

The Phase-IX market is a free parking area.

The employees were issuing a slip for Rs 30, which had ‘IPL paid parking’ written on it. Interestingly, the employees were openly using the name of the Mohali Municipal Corporation and were not hesitant to overcharge the commuters.

When asked about the contractor’s details, the employees provided a phone number which remained unreachable till the filling of the report. Notably, the same incident happened earlier this year in March during the matches of the World T20 Championship.

“We don’t know about any procedure or rule. The contractor provided us these tickets and asked to take Rs 50 from every person who was parking his or her vehicle here. We are just working for him,” said one of the employees. GMADA officials were also unable to comment on the issue.

Meanwhile, the commuters coming to watch the match had heated arguments with these employees, but to no avail. “We are already in a hurry to watch the match and have no option but to give the amount desired by them. These people don’t let any vehicle cross the road and are not even providing a proper parking space despite taking the money,” said Ravi Kumar Sharma, a student.

Another local resident, who had a free parking pass for the match, added that the employees were here just to make money. “They should at least provide a proper parking area. All the vehicles are parked in a haphazard manner and they are only concerned about charging money. They are not even issuing a proper slip. When we opposed, they asked us to approach the police personnel standing nearby,” claimed Madhu Prabhakar.

The situation took a turn for the worse after 5pm, when the people started turning up in large numbers to watch the Indian innings. “The trend has started recently. Even those who had free parking pass, procured along with the higher denomination tickets, were forced to pay the parking fees. The authorities of the PCA and the Municipal Corporation along with police officials should find a solution to the problem,” added Gurvinder Singh, an advocate by profession.