Parking attendants in Calcutta and Bidhannagar are still demanding more than the approved parking rates and fooling car owners or drivers by handing them printed slips bearing the name of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation or the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation.

The slips have ₹20 and ₹10 written on them and the parking attendants will give as many as required for the charge they levy. If they ask for ₹40, they will give two slips of ₹20 each. For ₹50, the attendants will hand over two slips of ₹20 and one of ₹10.

The slips will not raise any suspicion because they have the denominations printed on them along with the name of the local civic body, which decides the parking rates and outsources the management of parking bays to private agencies.

The practice continues across the city.

Officials in Calcutta and Bidhannagar told Metro the hourly rate for four-wheelers is ₹10 in all public car parks.

The experience shared by those who had to pay more than the stipulated rates reveals that a criminal racket is thriving on taxpayers’ money.

A south Calcutta resident who drives to Park Street regularly said that on weekend evenings, the parking attendants would not take anything less than ₹100 an hour if there is any vacant slot in the vicinity.

“It is difficult to get space on Park Street on weekend evenings. Russell Street or Free School Street become extortion zones then. When I refused to pay that amount, the attendant threatened that he would not let me park my car on that stretch ever again,” the south Calcutta resident said.

A bank employee said he was told to pay ₹200 — double the approved rate — for parking his car for 10 hours on Park Street.

A resident of Lake Town said the situation is the same across central Calcutta, though the amounts may vary depending on the area and the hour of the day.

In all these places, the parking attendant first confirms whether the car owner will pay the rates fixed by them before allowing the car to be parked. Once the owner agrees, space becomes readily available where there seemed none a while before.

Bidhannagar is no better.

Payel Ghosh, who came to visit a relative at a heart clinic in Salt Lake’s HB Block, said she was asked to pay ₹80 for “less than two hours”. The attendants, she said, neither gave her any slip nor showed her their identity cards.

A New Town resident said she was given a slip of ₹20 by a parking attendant in Salt Lake’s DD Block when she challenged them. The slip had no hourly rate — ₹10 — mentioned on it.

In stretches of the New Market area, the minimum hourly rate has now become ₹50. In Gariahat or Hatibagan, the scale of overcharging is relatively less. The attendants seek between ₹20 and ₹30 an hour.

None of the car owners Metro spoke to ever saw any rate chart displayed in the parking bays.

Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) officials keep saying they rarely receive any complaint. Many Calcuttans told this newspaper that they don’t lodge a formal complaint because they can’t pursue them to the conclusion.

KMC mayoral council member Debashis Kumar said: “We will conduct surprise visits and also lodge policecomplaints if there is overcharging.”

About printed slips bearing the KMC’s name, mayor Firhad Hakim said he was unaware of the practice. “I will look into it.”

Bidhannagar mayor Krishna Chakraborty said shewas aware of the illegal practice. “I have asked councillors to submit a report on this,” she said.

“We cannot suddenly lodge a police complaint. First let us identify those who are overcharging.”