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Parking lot vendors at it again
Parking lot vendors and their contractors somehow manage to flout prescribed norms and levy higher amounts from vehicle owners. Only a week ago,
- Prescribed fare is Rs 12/hour for two-wheeler
- Parking lot vendors charging Rs 15/hr
- Vendors say that transaction charges of app are being covered with extra charge of Rs 3
- Chief Commercial Inspector of Sec’bad Rly Stn warns of stern action against over-charging
Charge extra for two-wheelers, blame app for transactional cuts
Secunderabad: Parking lot vendors and their contractors somehow manage to flout prescribed norms and levy higher amounts from vehicle owners. Only a week ago, it was noticed that a vendor of the two-wheeler parking lot at Platform 1 of the Railway Station charged owners Rs 3 over the fixed amount for paying through PayTm, a money transaction app.
When questioned as to why they were charged extra, despite the mentioned fare of Rs 12 for an hour, the vendor bluntly replied that he was only following instructions of his "sir" and denied revealing any details about him. Moreover, he said that the charges being cut by the app during the transaction were being covered by the contractor through the extra amount and said that it was only a petty sum and nothing over which one needs to argue.
The issue was brought into the notice of the Railway officials who were shell-shocked. "Parking lot contractors are hired for a term of three years after calling in an open tender. They are only responsible to collect parking fees according to the norms of the government. They cannot charge as they please. We had not received complaints about this issue yet, but we will take stern action against those indulging in such heinous activities," said K Govind Rao, Chief Commercial Inspector, Secunderabad Railway Station.
It is to be noted that parking lots at Secunderabad Railway Station made headlines recently soon after passengers and visitors claimed that they were being charged above the base fare for stationing their vehicles for an hour or so. To that end, Railway authorities clarified that due to lack of sufficient change the said vendors were rounding off the charges and added that in most cases they were trying to procure coins worth rupees one to five to return as change.
To curb any sort of illicit activities on behalf of the parking lot vendors, the officials also installed a board at every parking lot indicating the fare amount to be paid by the owners of two-wheelers and four-wheelers to station their vehicles in the assigned area for a stipulated time, which included the 18 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST). This action also meant to safeguard the interests of passengers or their visitors from being exploited by the vendor.
Maitreyi Tadepalli
