Parking fee fiasco: Rush for a refund

Parking fee fiasco: Rush for a refund


The Kannada Rakshana Vedike protesting against the BBMP pay-and-park system tender given for Rs 60,000 per month, on M G Road on Saturday.
Express News Service
First Published : 04 Jan 2009 08:42:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 04 Jan 2009 10:56:09 AM IST

BANGALORE: Good news for all those who had to shell out parking fee on eight areas following the manipulation of an order by a BBMP Assistant Revenue Officer in the city on Friday.

The Palike announced on Saturday that the parking fee paid at these roads M G Road, Lavelle Road, Krishna Temple Road, Indiranagar, Bruton Road, Millers Road, Koramangala 5th Block and Ali Aksar Road will be refunded.

“We will refund the amount to those who come with the receipts that were issued to them on Friday,” BBMP Additional Commissioner (East) S Puttuswamy said.

The refund should be collected from the BBMP Additional Commissioner’s (East) office located in Mayo Hall.

Meanwhile, BBMP Commissioner- In-Charge Bharat Lal Meena has directed officials to conduct an inquiry against the official involved in manipulating the order dated December 29, 2008. The Commissioner has sought the submission of the report at the earliest.

According to the BBMP sources, Meena has assured that action would be taken against the errant official.

Following a rule notified by a BBMP Assistant Revenue Officer (ARO), parking attendants started collection of fee at the eight roads on Friday. However, the BBMP quickly withdrew the order and promised to take action against the official.

The order mentioned that the BBMP had authorised G Subramanya of the Aishwarya Associates to collect the parking fee from January 2.

But, it was later discovered that the order had been manipulated and the higher officials were kept in the dark about it. BBMP officials maintain that they had only passed an order for a handicapped ex-serviceman to collect parking fee only for a section on the Infantry Road.

Meanwhile, Minister for Urban Development Suresh Kumar has termed as ‘far from the truth’ the reports in a section of the media that the order was the result of a note from him.

“Neither have I issued an order, nor have I given any direction regarding the parking fee,” the minister said in a release.

However, he clarified that following a memorandum regarding the parking fee, he had issued directions for initiating ‘appropriate action’, adding that this could not be construed as an order.