Councillors reject agenda of revised parking rates in House meet

Councillors on Thursday rejected the agenda of revised paid parking rates in the House meeting. MC commissioner Bhawna Garg, who is accompanying a delegation of the UT administration to Copenhagen, had sent out a text message to joint commissioner Rajeev Gupta to get in-principle approval to the agenda proposing revision of rates of paid parking and increasing the number of lots from 26 to 93.

Councillors on Thursday rejected the agenda of revised paid parking rates in the House meeting. MC commissioner Bhawna Garg, who is accompanying a delegation of the UT administration to Copenhagen, had sent out a text message to joint commissioner Rajeev Gupta to get in-principle approval to the agenda proposing revision of rates of paid parking and increasing the number of lots from 26 to 93.

In the agenda, it was proposed to increase rates from Rs 5 per hour to Rs 40 per hour for four-wheelers and Rs 2 to Rs 20 (for two-wheelers).

As Gupta read out the message in the house, councillors lost their cool and said, “Who is she ( MC commissioner) to direct us? We will not allow this revision of parking at any cost as the House is supreme and commissioner has to follow the directions of the House.”

The councillors resolved that the recommendation of committee headed by former mayor Pardeep Chhabra should be accepted. It was decided that initially as pilot project, the parking lots at the Empire Store in Sector 17; outside the Elante Mall and Sector 22 be prepared as model parking lots and EoIs be invited from private firms to run these with rights to display advertisement on the dress of the workers, token slips and barricades etc. A board at the entry may alos be allowed with advertisements at its bottom.

Arun Sood, a member of committee said, “If the UT administration wants to impose the decision, what is the use of constituting the committee?”

The House also rejected the survey report of the engineering department and the enforcement department that recommended revision of rates.