How many times have you got into an altercation with the parking attendant? You thought he was demanding an exorbitant fee, didn’t have a receipt, couldn’t show the rate chart?
Car parking is one of the most common problems in Salt Lake but while most residents simply bicker about it in block WhatsApp groups, two individuals have stepped up to take action.
Sanjib Sinha Choudhury, a Purbachal resident, has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) against Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation over illegal parking. Dibyayan Banerjee, an advocate of Survey Park who frequents the township, has filed a Right to Information (RTI) Act application, asking the corporation to furnish details about public parking. Since the latter has failed to do so, Banerjee also is preparing to file a PIL now.
It seems nothing short of a court directive can extract such a simple piece of information as the civic authorities are unwilling to share the list of authorised parking lots even with the media. The Telegraph Salt Lake too has failed in its attempt.
Lone voice
“Every vehicle owner of Salt Lake suffers from this problem,” says Sinha Choudhury, a businessman in his 50s who has been living here since 1984. “You won’t see an attendant while parking but when you return to your car you’ll find a chit tucked under the wiper and a bloke in casual clothes demanding any figure that comes to his mind. And the receipt he hands you looks more like a beedi leaf.”
The turning point for Sinha Choudhury was when earlier this year, his friend Ananta Mondal was parking his bike around Manipal Hospitals. “Not only did the parking attendant create trouble but he also physically assaulted Ananta,” says the Purbachal Cluster IV resident, who rushed to the spot.
“We asked the chap for his authorisation papers but he had none. We spoke to his employer over phone and asked him to come down but it was a no-show. He couldn’t even WhatsApp his documents for us to verify,” said Sinha Choudhury, who then accompanied his friend to lodge a general diary with the police.
“This incident happened around Poila Baisakh 2023. We waited months but there was no action from the administration. Salt Lake has several welfare societies who are aware of this problem but they take no action either,” he says.
“I have been forced to file this PIL on behalf of the suffering common man.”
No reply to RTI
Another car owner who has had enough is Dibyayan Banerjee, a Survey Park-based advocate. “I have to travel across the city for my work and am fed up of harassment in the hands of people claiming to be parking attendants,” says Banerjee, who has filed an RTI application seeking information from both Bidhannagar as well as Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).
When asked if he had tried to source the information by approaching the authorities at the corporations, he said that would have taken him from table to table and would have eaten up much time. “The RTI is faster and the authorities are bound to reply within the specified time,” said Banerjee.
“Even though the KMC’s response was unsatisfactory they at least responded; BMC did not even bother to do that,” says Banerjee. “The RTI was filed right before the Pujas but they officially received it on October 30. Even then, the month-long time granted to them has expired and I shall file a case immediately now.”
Transparency needed
What both the plaintiffs seek is rather basic and something every vehicle owner would welcome. They want boards hung up on streets with the parking fee mentioned as well as the exact location of the parking space. “Say fee parking is from plot 1 to 10, I suspect the attendant charges fees is you park in 11 too. But how would we know? They get away only because peace-loving residents here don’t want to haggle over a payment of Rs 10,” says Sinha Choudhury.
The plaintiffs also want parking attendants to be in uniform or to atleast carry ID cards and documents authorising them to be collecting the fee.
Banerjee also wants to know about the parking transaction details. “Which company has the parking tender contract? How much revenue is the civic body earning from parking? What are the rates and norms for commercial car parking, especially all night? The Corporation is refusing to reply to my RTI as they don’t want to come clean about the finances. That raises suspicion about wrong-doing,” he says.
As for Sinha Choudhury’s PIL, the first hearing was in October but no representative from the Corporation appeared in court.
“The case has been filed in the honourable high court before the chief justice’s bench,” says his advocate Chandrasekhar Bag. “When no one appeared from BMC, the court asked us to issue a fresh notice, which we did. We are also aware of the RTI. On December 12, our case was mentioned in court and we are now waiting for a fresh date for the hearing, as per the court’s convenience.”
Ground reality
The Telegraph Salt Lake tried to source a list of the parking lots in the township but it turned out to be a wild goose chase — being sent from an executive engineer to an officer, back to the engineer and even the municipal commissioner because no one felt they were authorised to share it.
Without the official list, one cannot accuse the parking attendants of cheating drivers. Nonetheless, The Telegraph Salt Lake did the rounds of the township and failed to find even any notice with the fees mentioned on the notice board.
In the EZCC-Manipal Hospitals area, where Sinha Choudhury’s friend was allegedly assaulted by fraudulent attendants, The Telegraph Salt Lake found I-cards and uniforms on the men.
“We know about the allegations against our tribe but we are legal attendants working for Gupta & Gupta. We work honestly. On the contrary, it’s drivers who skip our parking lot and keep their cars in no-parking areas so they don’t have to pay up. Our lots are empty and agencies are losing money. They reduce road space and cause congestion,” said Gopi Halder, pointing at the near-empty lot behind DowntownMall that used to be Big Bazaar.
When contacted last week by The Telegraph Salt Lake, mayor Krishna Chakraborty said she was not aware of the PIL and RTI as the Corporation’s legal department handled these issues. “The information sought in the RTI is no secret. Yes, it cannot be shared with journalists but if someone has done an RTI he will get the details. No copy was addressed to me, else I would have known of it,” she said.
“As for the PIL, every resident wants the Corporation to do something or the other but we have to function as per rules,” Chakraborty said.