MARGAO
Levy of parking charges came back to haunt the Konkan Railway Corporation on Sunday after the Margao railway station witnessed an uproar on Sunday evening.
A group of locals protested over the levy of parking charges for 24 hours when they had parked their vehicles at the Margao railway station for around 12 hours. That’s not all. What has agitated the locals was the fact that the person who collected the parking fees could not issue any receipt, triggering an uproar.
The incident occurred on Sunday when the group, who had parked their vehicles in the morning, before catching a train to Kudal, returned back in the evening. While moving out of the railway station premises, a person approached them and asked them to shell out Rs 40 each as parking charges.
When the fee collector demanded Rs 120 from the group for the three vehicles, a lady in the group questioned the rationale for charging fee of Rs 40. Quoting the rates mentioned in the chart, the lady pointed out that the Rs 40 rate is applicable only when the vehicle is parked for 24 hours. “In our case, it’s hardly 12 hours we had parked our vehicles at the station premises. At the most, they can charge us Rs 20 per vehicle,” she demanded.
Interestingly, the contractor agreed to charge the group Rs 60, Rs 20 each for the three vehicles, but they could not issue any receipt, raising questions over the system in place at the premises.
When questioned, a representative of the contractor pointed out that the receipt cannot be given for the simple reason that the contractor’s personnel did not record the entry of the three vehicles when they were parked at the station premises on Sunday morning.
What infuriated the locals was that a person tried to put his weight around by questioning the group for raising queries.
KRC’s access and parking system had raised an uproar when it was introduced last month, forcing the Corporation to keep the project on hold for the moment.
