'Pay & Park' resurfaces for a day on mystery order

'Pay & Park' resurfaces for a day on mystery order
DH News Service, Bangalore:
Taking thousands of motorists and even the Bangalore in-charge Minister R Ashok completely by surprise, a mysterious and supposedly unauthorised Pay and Park system surfaced on Friday morning.


By evening, this rule notified by a BBMP Assistant Revenue Officer (ARO) had the Bangaloreans pay Rs 10 an hour for four-wheelers and Rs 2 for two-wheelers. But, as the word got around, the BBMP quickly withdrew the order.
The Palike blamed the ARO for the apparent fiasco, and promised disciplinary action against the official. Yet, the copy of the notification had a lot of loose ends, which the officials could hardly explain. It said the parking fee would be collected by the contract awardee against a deposit of Rs 1,75,000 given via a demand draft.

The order dated December 29, clearly stated that the BBMP had authorised G Subramanya of Aishwarya Associates to collect the parking fee from January 2. However, by Friday evening, the Palike had discovered that the order was allegdley manipulated and the higher officials, including the Additional Commissioner (East Zone) S Puttaswamy, had been kept in the dark. Even Bangalore in-charge Minister, R Ashok, was unaware of the order. Speaking to Deccan Herald, he said he would look into the matter.

When contacted, Bharat Lal Meena, Palike Commissioner, said the Additional Commissioner had informed him of the fiasco, but he was yet to study the report filed by the latter. The Commissioner was also not aware of the details. “We have cancelled the notification and ordered an inquiry into the matter,” said Meena.

As per law, the parking fee collection process has to be transparent via a tender process, and the contractors, who are awarded the bids, should advertise before they start the process. All these were found wanting on the day.

Meanwhile, official sources claimed that the ARO was only carrying out the orders given by his superiors.
But the Additional Commissioner maintained that he had only passed an order for a handicapped ex-serviceman to collect parking fee only for a section of the road in front of Safina Plaza at the corner of Infantry Road. Puttuswamy said the controversy was the fault of Jagdeesh, the ARO (Advertising) who had passed the order without the former’s consent. “While I had passed the order only for the ex-serviceman to collect the fee for parking on the stretch in front of Safina Plaza, I was never informed of the notification to collect parking fee at any other areas by Subramanya,” he said.

Puttuswamy also said that perhaps even the mafia was involved in the fee collection process, and that an inquiry was to be conducted. He denied knowledge of connection between the ex-serviceman and Subramanya, the eventual awardee of the contract.

Puttuswamy alleged that the ARO had violated the order and had added the areas of M G Road, Lavelle Road and its cross roads, Krishna Temple Road in Indiranagar, Brunton Road and Ali Askar Road, Jyothi Nivas College Road, Kormangala 5th Block and Millers Road.