he goan I network
MAPUSA
Call it shocking or just plain loot. Calangute village panchayat is charging motorists Rs 100 for pay parking!
A parking facility in Baga near the Nazri resort has been charging a fee of Rs 100 for a vehicle for 12 hours.
What it effectively means that if someone wants to park his vehicle even for just one hour, he has to fork out
Rs 100.
A printed receipt issued for parking bears the name of Calangute panchayat and the name of the contractor who collects the fee.
In a Facebook post, Kuldeep D’Mello slammed the exorbitant parking fee and called it daylight robbery.
“There is no option if you are parking for one or two hours. It’s straight Rs 100 for 12 hours. Daylight robbery? Or is it just another way of looting people visiting Calangute and Baga?” D’Mello said in his post.
Even after paying a hefty parking fee the motorists are supposed to park their vehicles in the open space at their own risk, as the contractor refuses to take responsibility for any damage or theft.
“I have not seen this rate for parking even in big metros where there is covered parking with so much of security. Even pay parking streets like Brigade Road in Bangalore charged just Rs 20 for two hours,” D’Mello said.
When the aggrieved motorist tried to rationalize with the fee collector, he simply said it was Calangute panchayat rules.
When contacted, Calangute Sarpanch Shawn Martins initially said it was not Rs 100 but Rs 60 and further pointed that the fee was not collected by the panchayat.
When The Goan pointed out to him that the receipt bore the name of Calangute panchayat, he sought time to respond.
When he did get back, Martins told The Goan that the parking place did not belong to the panchayat but to the comunidade and the fee was also collected by them.
Sources informed that Calangute panchayat had indeed called tenders for pay parking at various places within the jurisdiction of the panchayat in ‘March 2018 when Anthony Menezes was the sarpanch.
As a parting shot, D’Mello in his post said: “Do we still expect people to visit our so-called beautiful Goa when we are busy looting everybody, right from the shacks to restaurants and hotels, taxis to rental cars and bikes and now even parking!!! Simply wonderful!!”
