PANJIM: The pay parking scam in Panjim city persists as a significant amount of money is being extorted from tourists by pay parking fee collectors.
Recently the fee collectors were caught charging tourists Rs 100 per hour, while the official rate is Rs 20 for four-wheelers.
Not only extorting money, but parking at a No Parking area is also being permitted by the fee collectors.
What has been noticed is that if you are a Goan, you will pay Rs 20 per hour for parking your four-wheeler but if you are a tourist then you may be charged Rs 100 per hour.
The fee collectors are doing this with an ease as the tourists are unaware of the pay parking fees in the absence of proper boards with specified rates.
On Monday, a parking fee collector was caught charging Rs 100 to a tourist who had parked his four-wheeler for few minutes. However, the fee collector claimed that he had charged on the basis of duration of parking mentioned by the four-wheeler driver.
When contacted, contractor Sohan Zuwarkar,said, “Rs 100 ticket is for eight hours of parking. It is already written on the tickets. We have already informed the tourists and locals also that a lot of doctors and advocates buy that ticket for Rs 100 otherwise the rate of those tickets are Rs 150 for the same hours. He can buy the ticket and park anywhere in Panjim. For Rs 200 a four-wheeler can be parked for 24 hours.”
Reacting to the absence of boards with pay parking fees, “We have already filed a police complaint as some boards of ours were removed by the taxi fellows. We have now erected new boards. All the electricity poles in Panjim are being changed. So we will put new boards on them. You will see new boards in the next 15-20 days. In some of the areas, still pay parking has not started. It will start only by August 1,” Zuwarkar said.
He said that no parking areas have not been notified in the city.
