The Indian Express                      08.04.2013

Feroze Gandhi market parking contractor warned by MC

Not even a month has passed since the new parking contractor has taken charge at Feroze Gandhi market that the MC is getting flooded with complaints of overcharging.

Taking action, the tehbazaari wing of the Ludhiana MC issued the first warning to the contractor on Sunday, with Naveen Malhotra, superintendent, tehbazaari wing and personal assistant to Mayor, personally visiting the market to take stock of the situation.

Malhotra said, "We got some complaints of overcharging and I decided to visit personally. The vehicles were being overcharged against our contract with contractor. The person told me that it is the service tax but I warned him not to take service tax from the common man and visit MC office with documents for verification."

The contractor who was allegedly allowing parking on the service lanes for fire tenders inside the market was warned by Malhotra to keep service lanes vacant for emergency.

It was for the first time that Rs 1.90 crore were shelled out during an auction for an MC parking lot on March 21.

While Kishen Lal and Company took it for Rs 1.90 crore this year, it got Rs 1.03 crore last year. But right from the word go, the market has remained controversial with complaints of misbehaviour from parking employees.