Whiff of scandal at rose garden parking

A sign board says `DDA parking,’ but the attendant at the rose garden parking lot hands over a `MCD parking’ ticket with a printed price of Rs 8. This parking is around 50 metres from the main road. And yet the attendants issue parking tickets to motorists who park even on the road.

It caters not only to the morning walkers but also to people visiting the chic Hauz Khas village shops. People come also in tourist buses (Rs 20 per entry) and scooters (Rs 5). Attendants are supposed to charge Rs 5 for cars and Rs 3 for scooters. Buses are not to be parked on the main road and yet the rules are flouted.

“The reason DDA gave for a parking lot inside the rose garden was the traffic jam caused by the large number of cars parked on the main road. But despite the widening of the road, the chaos remains,” Colonel Rakesh Purohit, a resident of the area complained.

Motorists put up with the blatant cheating “We know all over Delhi parking is Rs 5. But what can we do ? We have to come here every day. These youngsters carry iron rods. Even if they do nothing to us physically, they can harass us; puncture our car tyres or break the tail lights,” Purohit added.

Express Newsline visited the Hauz Khas village. The attendant handed over a MCD parking ticket, even though it is supposed to be a DDA parking. When the discrepancy was brought to the lot attendant Depak alias Deepu’s notice he offered to change it with a proper DDA parking ticket.

So blatant a crime and so close to the office of the authorities. The office of deputy municipal commissioner (south zone) MCD and of the deputy commissioner of police (south district) are within a stone’s throw of the spot.

K.C. Bajaj, a retired bank official living in Green Park said: “It is impossible that neither the police nor the land owning agencies are aware of this racket.”

Deepu offered to refund the Rs 8 for the MCD parking ticket. “Actually the boy who gave you that ticket is new and did not know where the proper tickets are kept. Till yesterday we were out of the DDA tickets and by mistake the printer had printed the wrong tickets,” he explained.

Though DCP (South) Amulya Patnaik was not available for comments, police said they did not get a paisa from the racket. “You think we cannot check it. We can. But fear political pressure,” an official of the Hauz Khas police station said.