Parking attendants continue to demand more than stipulated rates in many parking bays across Calcutta, alleged several residents who tried to park their cars in different parts of the city this week. The amounts being sought are even 10 times the actual charge, they alleged.
Complaints of overcharging, collecting parking charges without receipts and the absence of rate charts in parking bays are age-old problems and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) never tried hard to bring in a change.
But after chief minister Mamata Banerjee expressed anger at the mismanagement of parking bays, many expected the civic body to act immediately.
This is yet to happen at several parking bays, alleged residents.
A south Calcutta resident told The Telegraph that he could not park his car on Rawdon Street and on New Park Street last Wednesday as the attendants demanded ₹100 an hour and ₹40 an hour, respectively, on these two roads.
The hourly parking charge approved by the KMC is ₹10 an hour.
“I was visiting a doctor on Shakespeare Sarani and the driver of my car was looking for a vacant space at a nearby parking bay. He first tried to park the car on Rawdon Street, closer to the Rawdon Street-Park Street crossing. The attendant there demanded ₹100 an hour. He drove away from there,” said the south Calcutta resident.
“The driver then found a vacant space on New Park Street, opposite Shiraz restaurant. Here, the attendant asked for ₹40 an hour. He again drove away. He kept making rounds of the roads till my work finished and he picked me up,” he said.
A woman who went to watch a movie at the Menoka Cinema on Thursday said the attendant managing the parking bay on Sarat Chatterjee Avenue, the road in front of the cinema hall, had initially asked for ₹60 for three hours. The actual rate would have been ₹30.
“When I refused to pay more than the stipulated rate, he agreed to take ₹30. I think he tried to make some extra money but when he realised I knew the actual rate, he did not press for more,” she said.
The attendants were not using point of sales (POS) machines in any of these three places. The KMC had made it mandatory to use the machines to collect parking fees.
The POS machines are supposed to generate a slip when a car enters a parking bay mentioning the time of entry and the registration number of the car. The machines also generate a receipt when the car leaves the parking mentioning the time of entry, the time of exit, the car’s registration number and the amount to be paid.
The KMC had made the use of POS machines mandatory across Calcutta from April last year. The order remains on paper as parking fees are still collected in almost all parking bays without giving any receipt to the car owners.
The chief minister last week voiced her anger at the mushrooming of illegal parking and grabbing of public spaces in the city and elsewhere in the state.
Mayor Firhad Hakim admitted on Saturday that the parking rules need better implementation.
“I think more monitoring is needed. Our officials can conduct sudden visits to see if the rules are beng adhered to,” Hakim said when told that POS machines were still not being used in parking bays.
An officer of Kolkata Police’s traffic department said they conduct drives against unauthorised parking, parking in two lines or beyond the demarcated area.
“We cannot take any action unless we receive a complaint that an attendant has collected more than stipulated rates. The problem is most people do not want to complaint. They also do not agree to identify the person who collected extra charges,” said the officer.
He added that if a car is parking outside the blue lines drawn to demarcate the parking bay, the police can prosecute the car for illegal parking. There are blue lines drawn on the road to identify the area of the parking bay.
