Sapna Gautam
I’m sure many of you living in Delhi may have noticed ubiquitous signs for ‘No Parking’ and ‘No Halting’ almost everywhere you actually require to park your cars. When I say everywhere, I mean in all public places including local markets, outside banks, hospitals and even outside the court premises.
There is no dedicated parking near banks with most banks being located in residential areas. On several occasions I have seen and myself experienced cars getting towed from outside the banks and hospitals. This is nothing but a deliberate harassment, which public has to go through for no fault of their own. Other day, a friend of mine went to the grocery store in nearby market. When she returned from shopping, she found her had already been towed away.
She narrated her ordeal how this situation had left her completely harassed. Since the people responsible for towing away your cars don’t leave any contact details on the spot, it is almost impossible for an ordinary person to locate the whereabouts of your vehicle.
In my friend’s case, she had to first arrange for her groceries to be kept at a safe place before attempting to find out where the culprit traffic police officials had taken her car. And when she finally managed to locate the place her car was taken to, she was made to pay Rs 300 in penalty.
Then there’s also a case of brazen discrimination while confiscating the cars for allegedly violating No Parking rules. While I’ve seen traffic police tow small cars, I have never seen them touch the big and luxury cars even if they were ‘violating the rules.’ This makes me wonder if No Parking rules are only meant to be applied on people who drive these less-expensive cars and not those who drive luxury cars.
Why is that when government agencies grant permission to an individual to open shops, banks or hospitals, they don’t make the availability of parking spaces mandatory without which their licences can’t be issued. On several occasions, my car has been towed away from outside the bank, even outside government offices and court premises.
Given that there may be quite a number of Delhiites who have been victims of these mad parking woes, we the citizens must rise to force the government to bring some sanity by giving us the much-needed relief. We must unite to apply pressure on our policymakers to improve the facilities for us.
NOTE: Views expressed are the author’s own. Janta Ka Reporter does not endorse any of the views, facts, incidents mentioned in this piece.
