A parking attendant was arrested near Deshapriya Park on Sunday on charges of cheating after police found him issuing printed receipts bearing the name of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and collecting more than the stipulated parking fee.
The KMC had in April last year discontinued the practice of issuing printed receipts and made it mandatory for all parking attendants to use point of sales (POS) machines to collect the fee and issue receipts generated by such machines.
This is, however, rarely followed and parking attendants in most places do not issue any form of receipt.
An officer of the South East Traffic Guard told Metro they checked the parking bay on Motilal Nehru Road, which runs along Priya cinema on the western side, after receiving a complaint.
“We found that the attendant was issuing receipts that had the name of the KMC printed on it. This is illegal because the KMC does not issue any printed receipt now,” said the officer.
“The man was also collecting more than the stipulated parking fee.”
The KMC has fixed a parking fee of Rs 10 an hour for cars. The attendant was allegedly collecting fee at the rate of Rs 20 an hour.
Based on the complaint from the traffic guard, Rabindra Sarobar police station arrested the man in his 50s. “He was booked under IPC sections 419 and 420,” said an officer at the police station.
Section 419 deals with “punishment for cheating by personation” and Section 420 deals with “cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property”.
If convicted, he can be imprisoned for up to seven years.
This newspaper reported on Monday that parking attendants in two places — in front of the AMRI Institute of Diabetes and Hormonal Disorders in Dhakuria and opposite Priya cinema on Rashbehari Avenue — were issuing receipts bearing the KMC’s name and mentioning Rs 20 as the hourly parking rate.
Debashis Kumar, mayoral council member in charge of the KMC’s parking department, said on Monday he had spoken with officers at Rabindra Sarobar police station after hearing about attendants issuing printed receipts with the KMC’s name printed on them.
“I have asked the police station to take action,” Kumar said.
He had said on Sunday that issuing receipts with the KMC’s name printed on them was a “criminal offence”.
Police sources said they were also keeping an eye on the other two places. On Monday, this newspaper found no one was collecting any parking fee from cars parked in front of the AMRI institute.
KMC officials said parking bays are managed by cooperative agencies and other companies, who deposit a fee to the civic body for running the bays.
Whenever asked why they do not use POS machines, parking attendants cite reasons such as erratic internet connection. The KMC, too, has not put much pressure on them to start using the machines.
The receipts generated by such machines are supposed to have the time of entry and exit, the car’s registration number and the amount to be paid mentioned on them.
Kolkata police had last year put up banners in parking bays asking people to dial 1073 if they were overcharged by parking attendants.