Panchkula residents miffed at “anti-public” parking charges, to hold dharna on Friday

In February last year, the Municipal Corporation of Panchkula had for the first time, introduced the concept of paid parking in Sectors 8,9, and 10 of the city. Despite several protests by residents — including marches across the city as well as instances of people getting into fights over parking charges — the decision was not rolled back. Last week, the civic body widened the ambit of areas for paid parking, and brought markets of sector 14 and sector 20 under its net.

The latest decision by the civic body has come as a shock to the residents. And though the civic body later decided to remove the parking tenders at sectors 8,9 and 10, municipality officials made it clear that the charges in the internal markets of Sector 14 and 20 would remain.

“We were against the parking charges being levied at sectors 8,9 and 10 from the beginning. This is purely bizarre. While the charges for sectors 8,9 and 10, which have common markets, are being rolled back, the ones in the internal markets will stay,” said SK Naiyar, President of Citizens’ Welfare Association of Panchkula.

The members of the Citizens’ Welfare Association, Panchkula, have now written a letter to Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Kattar, and which they have urged him to impress upon the Local Bodies Department, Haryana, to stop imposing the parking fee in various areas of the city.

“While on one hand, Panchkula businesses in inner/outer markets are still trying to recoup their losses sustained due to the Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020, on the other hand, the civic body in a bid to raise their income are imposing unnecessary charges. This, even when Panchkula municipality is is one of the richest civic bodies in the state. The public is under serious financial crisis already due to inflation. A parking fee of Rs 12 for four-wheelers, and Rs 6 for two-wheelers at this time is extremely unjust. The Sector-14 market is already under stress due to the thinning of customers. The new parking fee will further keep people away from the market now,” said Naiyar.

He further added, “The civic body has in fact been charging arbitrarily for parking. While sectors 8, 9, & 10 are charging Rs 10 and are being managed by Child Welfare Department (Red Cross), the other sectors — 14 and 20 — have imposed a parking fee of Rs 12 per vehicle. This action, therefore, is quite unfortunate, uncalled for and unjustified by the civic body.”

Meanwhile, the residents of Sector 20 have also decided to hold a dharna on Friday to mark their resentment against the parking charges in their area. KK Jindal, RWA president of sector 20, who will lead the dharna, said, “This decision is completely arbitrary as it was not passed by the municipal house. The decision was taken and implemented by a five-member committee. Such financial decisions cannot be taken and passed in a room and need to be put forth during house meetings.”

Citing the clauses under which the residents of Sector 20 purchased their houses, Jindal said, “The land that they want to charge us for using belong to the residents themselves The whole sector was developed at a no-profit, no-loss policy. We had paid for the open spaces as well. They have not developed a multi-level parking project on it. They have instead decided to start charging us for our own land.”

The implementation of paid parking at the internal market has left residents of Sector 20 miffed. “It is an internal market. We have to visit it 10 times a day forbuying essentials. It looks like we have specifically been targeted as ours is the only market that has will have paid parking. Only yesterday I went thrice to the market for milk, sugar, and diapers. I have a small child and have to drive to the market several times a day,” said Tarun Aggarwal, resident of Gh-74 of Sector 20, Panchkula.

The resentment is so high among residents, that a parking lot of Sector 14 has already once been vandalized by two unknown men, who took away the parking barricades, parking cones as well as stools, as per a complaint filed by the contractor of the parking area. The contractor alleged that the incident took place after a man, who did not want to pay for the parking, had entered into an argument with a staff member.

“Following the altercation, the accused man threatened the parking employee that he would teach him a lesson and they won’t be able to charge anyone anymore,” the complaint registered at Sector 14 police station read.

The internal markets of sectors 19 and 22 in Chandigarh provide free parkings, which are managed by the concerned market associations.