Six months on, opinion divided on revision of parking rates in Chd - Hindustan Times
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Six months on, opinion divided on revision of parking rates in Chd

Hindustan Times | By, Chandigarh
Nov 28, 2015 10:58 AM IST

With the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) failing to revise paid parking rates since the past six months, the UT administration has once again asked the civic body to take a call on the revision of rates.

With the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) failing to revise paid parking rates since the past six months, the UT administration has once again asked the civic body to take a call on the revision of rates.

Vehicles parked haphazardly in city’s parking lots add to the chaos.(Gurpreet Singh/HT Photo)
Vehicles parked haphazardly in city’s parking lots add to the chaos.(Gurpreet Singh/HT Photo)

While the MC now is tabling the agenda for the third time in the House meeting on November 30, councillors are questioning the move and saying that when the agenda has been already rejected twice in the House, why are they tabling it again?

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The MC officials feel that the councillors are holding the city to ransom over its politicking and showing indifference towards the administration’s efforts to regularise the parking system in the city. They say since the terms and conditions were not approved, the auction could not take place.

The agenda for increasing the number of parking lots in the city, revision of paid parking rates and introduction of smart cards for public convenience was placed in the House in the last two meetings, but was rejected by councillors of all parties.

A senior MC official said the residents desire efficient, convenient and smart parking system, but some political representatives still believe in freebies and subsidies. “Our attempts to rationalise the parking tariff has been thwarted by the political system repeatedly. Moreover in a city like Chandigarh, people do not have any problem in paying the revised amount. It is also must to regularise it in the wake of the Smart City issue, officer added.

Congress councillor Pardeep Chhabra said, “We do not understand why they are tabling it again? Officers are trying to suppress democratic rights of the residents. We do not want to burden the city residents and if the administration will do it, BJP will be held responsible for it.”

BJP councillor Davesh Moudgil said, “If administration will go against us, we will hold protest. It seems that MC officials want to favour contractors by increasing the rates.”

On September 30, a fivemember committee constituted to work out the modalities for the revision of paid parking fee had rejected the hike and proposed that all 26 paid parking lots in the city should be made free by giving them to private players so that they can maintain the same. The proposal was, however, rejected by the Mc commissioner Bhawna Garg. She had said, “We cannot allow advertisements in the parking lots as it will spoil the city’s beauty. We have to increase the rates at any cost.”

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Hillary Victor is a Principal Correspondent at Chandigarh. He covers Chandigarh administration, municipal corporation and all political parties.

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