Once road tax is paid the drivers have a right to park their vehicles as and when they require by the road side. While charging road tax government cannot impose restrictions on parking. But at the same time certain insecure areas can be prohibited for parking vehicles in public interest.
Government should have improved the public transport system in Goa similar to that existing in Mumbai to prevent people from purchasing their personal vehicles. In the public buses people are packed like sardines. Hence, people have opted to own personal vehicles. Government is well aware that there is scanty space for parking vehicles in the cities. But yet accept registration of new vehicles.
With reference to Herald dated 21/04/2016 regarding parking fees, I would like to suggest that the drivers along with the occupants visit the city in their vehicles for shopping and marketing. They need at least one hour for this job. Therefore, there should be a grace period for the four-wheelers and two-wheelers i. e. at least first one hour free parking should be there, since they are also road tax payers. Subsequently four-wheelers may be charged Rs 5 for the first two hours and Rs 10 for the subsequent hour up to 12 hours and above 12 hours, Rs 100 per hour may be charged. While two- wheelers (mostly used by common men) may be charged Rs 2 for parking up to two hours and Rs 5 for the subsequent hour up to 12 hours and above 12 hours the fees may be Rs 50 per hour.
It is the businessmen who park their four-wheelers and two-wheelers from morning till they close down their business for the day and deprive their customers from parking their vehicles. Similar parking may be followed at Patto Plaza.
There are drivers and riders who park their vehicles and enter the offices/banks and shops for ten to fifteen minutes and leave with their vehicles from the parking places. Are they supposed to pay parking fees? Please examine this point.
Regarding proposal to hike sanitation fees from Rs 350 to Rs 750 annually in the next year, there is no need to double the fees. For example, a Co-op Housing Society, Ltd., Caranzalem, collects annual maintenance charges from their members (owners of the flats). The door-to-door garbage collection is done by the sweepers of the Society. These sweepers are paid from the maintenance charges collected by the society. CCP does not collect garbage from door-to-door from these 300 flats but collects garbage at one point delivered by the society’s sweepers outside the gate of the Complex to the CCP garbage truck. Therefore, in the first place CCP is wrong to collect Rs 350 annually from each member of the Society, who are paying huge amount of house tax and therefore has no right to increase this fee to Rs 750 annually.
CCP is requested to consider pros and cons while imposing parking fees and sanitation fees and do not set your eye to generate revenue in the name of Smart City development.
