Parking policy: Residents reject proposal to levy more taxes

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune news service

Chandigarh, December 10

Opening the government offices for seven days and restricting the numbers of the visitors at the offices are some of the suggestions by residents and associations to the Administration.

While the Administration has extended the time for receiving the objections over the draft parking policy till January 15, 2018, residents have trashed the policy proposing higher taxes in more than 30 objections received so far.

In view of increasing the number of vehicles, traffic chaos and parking problem, the Administration has issued a draft parking policy in which various measures such as levying congestion charges, heavy road tax, manifolds increase in the parking charges and penalty have been proposed.

The Chamber of the Chandigarh Industries, while rejecting the proposal for increasing the road tax for second vehicle, has suggested to open the government offices for seven days. The association says that since all offices open five days, so all work has to get done in those five days only. Seven days a week mght reduce the concentration of visiting people. Chamber members say the working hours of individuals will remain same. Just like we have power cuts on different days for different areas, government departments for different sectors can be operational on different days. This will reduce the congestion for sure. Changing opening time and closing time of various offices can help reduce traffic .

Surinder Kumar, a resident, said the problem of parking could also be solved without putting any kind of taxes on the residents. He said the concept of the roundabouts should be scrapped, as it caused heavy traffic during the peak hours. Pawan Aggrwal, another resident, said the Metro project should be revived to decrease the traffic.

Correction

Apropos the news report, "At parking lots, violations galore", which appeared in these columns on Saturday, it was inadvertently mentioned that the firm managing the parking lots has failed to provide uniforms and helmets to its staff. The error is regretted.