Chandigarh administrator says no to double parking fee for non-tricity vehicles
Banwarilal Purohit asks Chandigarh MC to roll back its decision; says there can’t be disparity in parking rates for tricity residents and those living outside
In a major blow to the Chandigarh municipal corporation’s plans, Punjab governor and UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit on Friday directed the civic body to roll back its decision of charging double parking rates from four-wheelers registered outside the tricity.
The directive came during the Administrator’s Advisory Council Meeting, held at Hotel Mountview on Friday.
Purohit said there can’t be disparity in the parking rates for tricity residents and those living outside. “Chandigarh should set an example of parity,” said the governor, while directing city mayor Anup Gupta and MC commissioner Anindita Mitra to charge equal parking fees across the board.
Speaking later during a press conference with UT adviser Dharam Pal, mayor Anup Gupta said, “As per administrator’s suggestions, we will review the parking project in the next House meeting.”
During the general House meeting on July 25, the Chandigarh MC had imposed a marginal fee hike for tricity cars, but decided to double the fee for cars registered outside the tricity.
MC had also decided to waive parking fee for all two-wheelers and electric four-wheelers (up to March 31, 2027).
Currently, the civic body charges ₹7 for two-wheelers and ₹14 for four-wheelers, irrespective of the vehicles’ registration number.
The MC House had also approved monthly passes for locals. For non-commercial four wheelers, ₹300 were planned for monthly pass for single or multiple entries in a day up to 12 hours (for specific parking). For commercial four-wheelers, the monthly pass’ cost was set at ₹800.
Though the mayor had claimed that the plan was aimed at decongesting the city’s parking lots and generate more revenue for the civic body, the policy had evoked strong opposition from political parties from Punjab and Haryana.
Cutting across all party lines, political leaders from the two states had termed MC’s policy as discriminatory and illegal, while reminding the civic body that Chandigarh is the capital of two states.
The leaders had opined that it was an unprecedented and retrograde decision to discriminate among people of different states of the country on a state-to-state basis.
The revised parking rates were approved by the 35-member MC House, where the BJP has a clear majority with 14 councillors, one more than AAP’s 13. The Congress has seven seats and the SAD one. The fee hike decision was supported by both the BJP and the Congress.
However, it invited criticism even from Haryana Assembly speaker and BJP leader Gian Chand Gupta, and Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, who even wrote to Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit, urging him to revoke MC’s decision.
“Every family in Chandigarh has traces in Punjab and Haryana. Several people living in Chandigarh have four-wheelers registered in various districts of Punjab and Haryana, and even from other states. Chandigarh MC must take this decision back,” Warring had said.
