MCDs in no mood to hike parking charge

South Corpn refers directive back to LG

With Assembly elections in Delhi only a few months away, the BJP-ruled civic agencies are not willing to implement the new parking rates ordered by Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna.

Wary of the consequences, South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s standing committee on Tuesday referred back the directives to increase charges to the Lieutenant Governor.
Motorists have to shell out up to 20 times more parking charges if the new rates are implemented.

This despite the fact that the chief law officer of South Corporation, Praveen Shukla informed the standing committee that approval of new rates by the LG is ‘binding’ on the civic body.

“We have discussed the issue in the past. Even the commissioner had proposed hike in parking charges in their budgetary proposals. The proposal was turned down by the standing committee, Rajesh Gehlot, chairman of standing committee said.

“We are referring back the proposal to LG office. We would meet LG over the issue and request him not to burden the residents,” Gehlot said.

Last month, LG Tejendra Khanna approved a steep hike in parking rates to promote public transport and discourage people from using private vehicles.

Khanna approved the new rates as recommended by the special task force appointed by High Court in 2012.

The new rates have to be implemented by the civic agencies as well as other government agencies like DDA and Delhi Metro.

New rates

According to the new rates for non-peak hours — a four-wheeler will be charged Rs 10 for the first 30 minutes, Rs 20 for the first hour and Rs 20 more for every subsequent hour.
The cost for parking four-wheelers for 10 hours will be Rs 190. During peak hours — between 9 am and 11 am and from 5.30 pm to 7 pm — the rates will increase by an additional 50 per cent.

At present, civic bodies charge Rs 10 for ten hours on an average.

The North and East corporations have also decided against implementing the directions and are exploring legal shields to delay it.

However, officers said the corporation’s stand is unlikely to yield result and they are just trying to chalk out ways to pass on the blame of any such hike on Delhi government.

“The municipal corporations are buying time on the issue as they do not want to take the blame ahead of Assembly elections. The proposal is likely to come up before the council meeting in New Delhi Municipal Council chaired by the chief minister. If they implement the new rates, the corporations would soon follow suit,” a senior corporation officer said.