In a crackdown on parking mafia in the city, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) booked five contractors on Tuesday and lodging criminal cases against four of them. The parking contractors in commercial areas of Karol Bagh were found grossly violating the norms, including running the parking lots illegally and overcharging motorists.
A raid was conducted by Deputy Commissioner Dharmendra Kumar and Karol Bagh zone chairman Rajesh Bhatia at the parking sites of Ghaffar Market, Ajmal Khan Road, Arya Samaj Road, Padam Singh Road, Saraswati Marg and PVR Naraina. While 12 parking operators were handed over to police for illegally running the parking lots; the corporation also penalised the others for various violations and recovered Rs7 lakh penalty.
According to officials, two parking sites at Ajmal Khan Road were raided. “The contract of one of the parking lots had been cancelled earlier; hence it was free for public. However, the same was found being run illegally. Four people have been arrested from this parking lot for charging motorists,” said an official. The other parking site at Ajmal Khan Road was also found overcharging and violating norms. It was found being run without handheld device for issuing slips and lack of display boards mentioning details of the parking and the contractor.
At Ghaffar Market, parking was done beyond permissible limit as also the attendants hired by the contractor without police verification. “The attendants were handed over to local police for verifying their antecedents. At Arya Samaj Road and Padam Singh Road parking sites also, two attendants each, were caught and handed over the police. The parking contractors were also penalised for overcharging and flouting norms like not wearing prescribed uniform and without handheld device,” officials said.
At PVR Naraina parking, which is situated opposite police station, eight attendants were handed over to police for verification. Overcharging and violation of other rules were also found there. “Overcharging, absence of detail board and handheld device and improper uniform by operators amounted to violation of parking norms. A penalty of Rs7 lakh has been imposed on five contractors. Many of them were fined earlier also for violations,” Bhatia said. The issue of irregularities and overcharging was deliberated in details in the meeting of Standing Committee where Chairman Mohan Bhardwaj directed the officers to have zero tolerance towards unauthorised parking.