Encroachments by vendors galore in city parking lots
Even as the Municipal Corporation (MC) House approved up to 40 per cent increase in the parking rates at its meeting held yesterday, the lack of facilities in the parking lots continue to inconvenience residents.
The residents said the MC was not taking any action against the encroachments. The parking lots in many sectors have become mini-markets being run by illegal vendors. These encroachments not only present an ugly look but also cause a lot of problems to visitors.
Sanjiv Chadha, president, Chandigarh Beopar Mandal, said the increasing encroachments by vendors in the parking areas had become a major problem in the city. The MC should have ensured proper facilities before increasing the parking fee. He said the Market Welfare Associations were ready to manage their respective parking areas.
The visitors are happy wherever the market associations are managing the parking lots free of cost. If the MC properly develops the area behind the markets, then it can be used for the parking of traders’ vehicles.
Arvind Jain, president, Vyapar Sadan, said the MC had never provided proper facilities in the parking lots.
Once the rates are increased, these areas are left neglected. Even today, the parking areas are full of vendors. There are no proper markings and arrangements for ambulance parking. Haphazard parking has become a norm. The employees manning the lots don’t wear proper uniform and mostly one employee manages the whole parking lot, he said.
Chander Verma, president, Chandigarh Businesses Council, said there was no justification in increasing the rates without providing smart parking facilities to residents.
Harman Singh Sidhu, president, ArriveSAFE NGO, said
vehicles queued up on the roadside caused snarl-ups while only one parking attendant leisurely issued slips. Employees are only concerned about collecting fee, not properly managing the parking lots. The worst-hit are the physically challenged who often struggle to find a space earmarked for them.
He said he had raised these issues in various meetings of the Chandigarh State Road Safety Council & District Road Safety Committee, but to no avail. The MC cannot get away by saying that the revised rates will be implemented after a new company takes over the lots. Even the existing parking rates are high enough given the facilities visitors get.
Councillor Saurabh Joshi, who raised the encroachment issue at the parking lots in the House meeting, said the number of these illegal vendors had increased in the recent past in the absence of checking by the civic authorities.
President of Second Innings Association RK Garg said while the illegal vendors had started encroaching on parking areas too, the civic body had failed to act against them.
Baljinder Singh Bittu, president, Federation of Sectors Welfare Association Chandigarh (Foswac), said vendors had encroached on the parking lots and people were forced to park their vehicles on roadside.
It has been become the norm that first, the MC increases the parking rates and then the contractor leaves midway. While the parking lots are left neglected, people continue to pay the revised rates, he said.
