Parking lot fleecing: Finally, Ludhiana MC asks finance panel to cancel firm’s contract

Though the municipal corporation had claimed to recommend to the finance & contract committee to act against the parking lots’ contractor on Ferozepur Road last month, it came to the notice that the same was done only on Sunday after HT asked MC commissioner for the action taken.

MC commissioner, Ghan-shyam Thori, informed that they have sent the case to finance and contract committee for cancellation of the contract of parking lots on Ferozepur Road.

MC superintendent in his report states that the parking contractor has not started e-ticketing at the parking sites and the staff is overcharging from the visitors. The report states that the superintendent has recommended for cancellation of the contract, which was awarded to Sachin Sharma in July 2016 for one year.

The visitors to the areas continue to face harassment. Instead of giving the mandatory e-ticketing, the contractor is issuing manual slips and overcharging.

Sharing his experience on Sunday, Simran Dhaliwal, owner of Dreamworld Immigration, alleged that the parking staff demanded Rs 30 for parking of his car for only 40 minutes, against the parking fee of `10 per hour at the parking lot near Ansal Plaza.

“The employee concerned issued him a manual slip instead of e-ticket. I had a verbal spat with them on the same issue”, he said.

“When I went to Silver Arc Mall, the parking staff demanded Rs 40 and issued half-torn manual slip at the parking lot outside the mall on Sunday. It is sheer harassment for us. What are the MC officials doing? No helpline signage were displayed there”, he further added.

Commuters are being fooled as Rs 10 imprint is torn off from the side of the ticket to hide the price of parking of four-wheeler for less than 1 hour. The visitors told that the parking staff started arguing with them if they asked the reason of overcharging.

Despite highlighting the issue several times, MC has failed to form the monitoring committee to keep check on the violations at the parking lots. Sources said MC officials are hand-in-glove with the parking contractors who are backed by some political leaders. Though the fleecing is not being stopped at the existing parking lots, MC is going to hold auction to hand over new parking lots on September 7.

Will MLA take up the issue?

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) deputy leader in Punjab Assembly, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who is MLA from Ludhiana West, said, “The parking mafia is active in the city and it is being run under the nose of the administration. The license of the contractors who are fleecing the visitors should be cancelled. FIR should be registered against the erring contractors.”

“The matter was raised in the house meeting of MC. Now, I will take up this issue”, he said.