Parking lot turning into shop-space

Parking lot turning into shop-space
Deccan Herald

From footpaths to the now fee-free parking spaces - the hawkers have moved on with the times in Bangalore.

In M G Road for example, a Maruti Omni stocked with pajamas, T-shirts, caps and other like-clothing of everyday use was found parked in front of the Barton Centre, the last three days. The location was obviously well-chosen, for the open-air Barista cafe in the fore-court of Barton Centre is a big draw with youngsters.

Is it an early sign that Mayor R Narayanaswamy’s much acclaimed free-parking is headed for a naught? The Bangalore Police who had openly expressed their reservations to free-parking, seems to have ignored the business being conducted from the parking lot.

On Thursday afternoon, when the attention of the cop on duty was drawn to the hawker vehicle - he turned around and gave verbal dress-down to the three men who were attending on the vehicle. ‘Driver is not around’ replied one of them. The cop left it at that and turned his attention to a car scouting for a parking space. ‘No double parking. Move on, move on...’ he ordered.

The three attendants with their goods carrying vehicle were found stationed thus even hours later. The attendants said that they came from Chamarajpet.

“We stand here for a few hours, and move on to other places,” they explained. Suddenly, fearing for their livelihood they stonewalled all further queries saying “Don’t know. should ask our owner.”

When contacted DCP Traffic (East) M A Abdul Saleem said that no such case had come to his notice before. “Road cannot be used as shop-space.We will take immediate action,” he said.