Voice against x-cut road parking charges
The Coimbatore Consumer Cause has assailed the Coimbatore Corporation on the fee it collects for parking vehicles at the new lot opened on Cross-Cut Road recently.Reacting to the Corporation’s resolution in the Council that Rs.20 will be collected for cars parked for six hours and Rs.10 for two-wheelers, the consumer body’s secretary K. Kathirmathiyon said that such an exorbitant fee was unacceptable.On Mayor R. Venkatachalam saying that the Corporation would reconsider the fee and fix rates on hourly basis, Mr. Kathirmathiyon said that the Corporation should not be collecting a fee at all on Cross-Cut Road.“The Corporation should be held accountable for the lack of parking space in the commercial complexes on this road,” he said.Pointing out to the building rule violations in the structures, which led to the lack of parking space, the consumer activist said that this was the reason why the public were forced to park their vehicles along the road. This, in turn, caused congestion on this busy stretch.
“As the Corporation did not stop these violations or take any corrective measures to ensure that parking space was provided, the civic body should be penalised. Instead, it seeks to pass the consequences of the problem on to the people by levying a fee.”Mr. Kathirmathiyon recalled the case his organisation had filed in the court to seek the abolition of the parking fee collected more than five years ago on this road.“I had pointed out that this was a problem allowed to thrive by the Corporation. Therefore, the civic body could not penalise the public by collecting a parking fee. I reiterate this point now. There is no need to ask for a reduction in the fee now. It just cannot be collected. The Corporation has no justifiable reason to collect it,” he said.
