MC plans to lower challan amount for wrong parking

CHANDIGARH: After public outcry over charging a whopping Rs 3,500 challan amount for parking cars in non-designated areas, the Municipal Corporation is planning to bring down the charges. However, violations continue to persist in various parts of the city as the drive takes a halt.

Vehicles parked on the roadside in Sector 34, Chandigarh, on Friday. Tribune Photo: Pradeep Tewari

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 15

After public outcry over charging a whopping Rs 3,500 challan amount for parking cars in non-designated areas, the Municipal Corporation is planning to bring down the charges. However, violations continue to persist in various parts of the city as the drive takes a halt.

The civic body is contemplating to bring the matter in the House meeting to lower the amount.

“A sum of Rs 500 is the challan amount and Rs 3,000 is for towing away a vehicle. We realised that Rs 3,500 for a car is too much. We are deliberating to bring it down. We will take up the matter with the Commissioner or it will be brought in the House meeting,” said MC Joint Commissioner Tejdeep Singh Saini.

On December 12, going overboard the MC had challaned as many as 45 cars and nine motorcycles in Sector 34 and charged a challan fee of Rs 3,500 and Rs 1,500, respectively, for parking vehicles in the area other than paid parking lots. This led to a protest by motorists who rued hefty challan amount and damage done to their cars by towing away their vehicles.

They said the traffic police were charging only Rs 1,300 for illegal parking. They also wondered why the corporation was penalising them suddenly for parking in the open ground where there is no such cautionary board. A number of people park their vehicles here daily. Mostly, outsiders are not aware about it.

Things back to square one

The issue of parking at non-designated spots is back to square one after one day of enthusiastic enforcement drive by the MC in Sector 34. A visit to the area showed that a number of vehicles were parked on roads, paver blocks and open ground on the rear side of company buildings in Sector 34. At these places, the MC and the police undertook a major drive, but it failed to have any effect on ground. The problem is not only restricted to Sector 34. It also persists in Sectors 8, 9, 17 and 35. The Joint Commissioner said, “It’s not that it was just a one-day drive or we have stopped it. Whenever we get a complaint, we take action.”