The Times of India        03.11.2014  

Parking contractor fined Rs 50k for overcharging

COIMBATORE:
Corporation officials have slapped a fine of 50,000 on an erring
parking contractor Namachivayam, who had taken a two-wheeler parking
contract for Singanallur bus stand in the city, a year back. On a sudden
inspection on Friday, officials noticed that he was violating the
parking fee norms and was overcharging customers. The incident has
exposed the rot in corporation’s parking lots. Twelve corporation
parking lots in the city were leased out to private contractors and it
was found that all of them were overcharging.

According to the
rates fixed by the corporation, for the first three to six hours, the
contractors are supposed to charge only 5 for two wheelers and for four
wheelers, the rate is 10 for three hours. But they have been charging 10
for two-wheelers and 20 for four-wheelers. “They charge just like the
private companies,” said Devarajan, a frequent user of corporation
parking lot.

“There is no point in arguing with these people
either. They will come up with multiple reasons to thug us,” said
Sundar, an IT employee.

Even as this reporter parked her
vehicle for just 15 minutes at Cross Cut Road parking lot, the
contractor’s employee charged Rs 10 instead of Rs 5. On being
confronted, the employee said he didn’t know the tariff and returned
excess fare.

Most of the time as people are in a hurry, these
employees use that situation to their advantage. “Those who object would
either waste their time or end up parking elsewhere,” said Rajesh, who
frequents the bus stand parking lot.

TOI noticed that the
tariff in the parking ticket was crossed out so that the commuters would
not argue with them. In many other places as ticket machines were used,
one could not argue as well.

The civic officials said they had
been inspecting these parking lots regularly and have also fined them
on earlier occasions. “Three months back, we fined Gandhi Puram town bus
stand contractor 1 lakh for overcharging customers,” said the M M
Kanagaraj, central zone assistant revenue officer.

But even
after the fine, the charges remain really high. If one calculates for a
300 capacity parking lot, the contractor earns 3 lakh every month. A
fine of 1 lakh once a year will hardly affect their revenue in any way.

Generally, each contractor signs a three-year contract with the corporation and then fresh tenders are released.

“We will take action against private contractors if they are found
involved in irregularities and overcharging customers, ” said a
corporation official.

On the other side, the labourers who are
engaged by the contractors said their salaries were very low and they
get paid based on their collections. “Most of these contractors have
political affiliations. The leased land is under the contractor’s name
but the real owners will be some politician, and even if they are caught
hardly there will be any strict action against them,” said a source.