Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai   

Illegal collection of parking fee at T. Nagar

By P. Oppili

CHENNAI JULY 8. Motorists parking their two-wheelers in one part of T.Nagar are being asked to pay a fee to personnel who did not issue receipts and instead used "tokens" that were collected back from them when the vehicles were removed.

This reporter who visited Natesan Street, just behind the crowded Usman Road area of T.Nagar on Monday found parking of two-wheelers being done on the western part of the street and each vehicle being asked to pay Rs.2.

No receipt is issued for the collected amount, and instead the parking attendant distributed a token to each vehicle owner. A similar token was issued to this reporter for his vehicle, and the token number was scribbled on the seat during the time that it was parked. The vehicle owner had to return the token with the cash while taking the vehicle from the parking lot, removing any evidence of the transaction.

The western part of this street has been declared one-way by the Traffic police and the vehicles coming from Guild Street have to take only a right turn. No left turn is allowed here. However, violating the traffic rules many vehicles were seen passing through the stretch, despite a board announcing that the stretch was `one-way'.

When asked about the safety for the vehicles parked on the one-way stretch, the parking attendant said that there was no problem from the enforcement authorities. He also assured that the vehicles would not be towed away. During an hour, it was found that 15 to 20 vehicles are parked on the stretch.

In T.Nagar six streets have been officially identified where charges are levied for parking vehicles, which include Pinjala Subramanian Street, Venkatesan Street, Mahalakshmi Street, Ramaswami Street, Sarojini Street and around Panagal Park area, apart from the South Usman Road. The Corporation Deputy Commissioner (Revenue and Finance), D.P.Yadav when contacted, said that there was no parking lot on Natesan Street.

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