Unsolved mysteries of parking tickets

BANGALORE: Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has been struggling for a long time to find a solution  to the parking issues in the city . However, the citizens have no idea whether the parking lots belong to the BBMP or whether it is an illegal one. This is owning to the fact that the parking tickets issued at various places fail to provide any details pertaining to a running serial number, date seal stamp, amount or fees, entry or exit time.N Vikram Simha, a RTI activist pointed out to City Express, “Recently, my wife went to KR Market to purchase on her scooter. She parked her scooter in front of the market at the parking area. Later, she paid `5 and got a parking ticket. To our surprise, we observed that  the tickets do not have any details of the parking ticket. All it had was- as per BBMP terms and conditions.”He further questions, “ In that case, where is the accountability factor? How this racket going on illegitimately, fooling the tax payers?”He added, “Way back in 2007, when my friend and a fellow RTI activist C N Kumar of Jayanagar witnessed the same scenario in a railway station  and filed an RTI, the contract was cancelled right away. We request the authority to take actions in to avoid any chances of foulplay.”When City Express contacted Commissioner Shankar Linge Gowda on the issue, he said, “The parking in KR Market has been auctioned out to a contractor and BBMP is not responsible for the same. On such market areas, there is no need of providing any details on the parking tickets, as the collection is flat and same for all the vehicles. We do not apply mall-like guidelines. It does not vary from time to time for individual vehicles.”The Commissioner further added, “Since it is leased out to individual contractor by BBMP itself, it is very much legal.”