Residents oppose clause in proposed parking policy : The Hindu

The East Delhi Residents’ Welfare Associations Joint Front on Wednesday said it opposed a clause in the proposed parking policy that will charge people for parking their vehicles on roadside outside their houses.

The collective submitted an appeal to the Delhi government’s Transport Department and to the East Delhi Municipal Corporation.

The appeal said that the government can fix as high a charge in commercial hubs, markets, multilevel parking lots and on roadsides, but to charge a fee for parking vehicles outside houses will come as a jolt to the common man.

President of the RWA collective B. S. Vohra said that they will “vehemently oppose” this clause of the new parking policy.

Tax burden

“We are against any parking fee for parking our own vehicles outside our own houses. First the government charges us income tax then we have to pay as much as 28% as GST and other taxes for taking our vehicles out on the road, said Mr. Vohra.

“Apart from this, they charge us road tax and house tax. The government does not want to give us services in return for all the taxes they suck out of us but want to keep charging taxes,” he added.

“Each charge should come with a service in return. Just like if we pay for the parking in designated lots, then it is the operator’s responsibility to keep it safe. So, if we are paying the government for a parking spot outside our houses, will they guarantee that the cars will be kept safe? Will they ensure 100% compensation for each instance of vehicle theft or damage?” Mr. Vohra asked.

He added that the government should also in such case ensure that there are no potholes or waterlogging on roads outside houses where the cars are parked.

‘Explain decision’

Manohar Joshi, a resident of Patparganj and a member of the local RWA, also demanded that the idea behind the implementation of this charge be explained to the people of the city.

“We have asked for an appointment with the special commissioner (transport) regarding charging a fee from residents for using the space outside their own houses. What purpose will it serve? How will it decongest Delhi, and how will it bring down pollution? We just want to understand what purpose does this serve,” he said.

with thanks : The Hindu : LINK

The Hindu : Residents oppose clause in proposed parking policy : B S Vohra

Will oppose any Parking charges for Parking our Car, in front of our home

We are absolutely against any parking charges on the parking of our own car in front of our own home. First, they charge Income Tax & after that, we have to pay 28% as GST + other Taxes / Charges for taking our vehicle on the Road.  Next is a REGULAR - more than 100% margin on the sale of Petrol & Diesel by way of GST. They have a Tax on the Insurance policies. They charge Road Tax. They charge House Tax. And now they want a Parking charge on our car for parking it in front of our own home. Strange & Shocking. They just want MONEY. More & more money from ordinary people, but they don't have an answer to our problems. They must answer:

Will they provide a Security to our car parked outside our home? Will they assure that our car will no more be lifted/stolen, while parked at our gate? Will they ensure immediate  100% compensation for every such instance? Will they pay us for any damage to the vehicle parked outside our gate? Will they take care of our Car during Monsoon, in case there is waterlogging? Will they check that there are no potholes in front of our home? Will they check that no one else can park his/her vehicle in front of our home? Will they look after all the quarrels we face with outsiders for parking our car in front of our home? NO! They just want MONEY. More & more money from ordinary people. And we become puppets in the hands of those, whom we ourselves vote, elect & give power.

If they don't have an answer to above, we will oppose any such move, in every possible manner. Please go through our objections/suggestions, filed with the concerned authorities in the month of July:

DRAFT PARKING POLICY OF DELHI GOVT : SUGGESTIONS

12th July, 2017

Special Commissioner Transport

Room No. 208, Second Floor,

Transport Department, GNCT of Delhi,

5/9 Underhill Road, Delhi-110054.

Dear Sir,

You can decide and Fix any parking charges for the parking of vehicles in the Markets, Commercial places, multilevel parking, to de - congest the roads and to control the pollution.

But you should never allow any Day, and / or Night parking charges from the residents for parking their own vehicles outside their own homes. Please note as below in this regard:

1.  Please note, for every sale of all such vehicles Govt has already earned a huge share in VAT, EXCISE, Registration charges, Road Tax as well the service tax on the insurance policies of these vehicles, and the Income tax from the genuine buyers. They are already earning a lot on the sale of Petrol and Diesel for all these vehicles. Even after the GST regime, they still have a huge share out of the 28% levied on vehicles.

2.  It’s sad and shocking that now Govt is eying the parked vehicles of the residents, outside their own home. They are absolutely wrong in saying that residents are using Free of charge space for parking their own vehicles, outside their own homes.

3.  When the colonies were developed years ago, prices of plots were decided on the basis of the size of inner roads in that area. The posh localities had wide inner lanes and therefore cost of plots was on the higher side. The middle / upper middle colonies had a bit smaller roads and therefore cost of plots was lesser than the posh localities. Whereas, the lower colonies had narrow lanes, and hence the cost of plots was also on the lower side.

4.  Now after 40 – 50 years, if Govt says that these colonies are using the public land Free of cost, THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY WRONG, as we have already paid the price of such inner lanes via the purchase price of our residential plots. Do you think that developers of these colonies were that much fool to offer inner lanes free of cost, causing huge losses.

5.  Moreover, there is no traffic in the inner lanes, except in the commercial areas, and no one is degrading the pedestrian environment in any way. Instead, it’s the policies of the Governments that degrade everything to levy a charge later on.

6.  Sometime Emergency vehicles face some problem while entering the inner lane, and it must be given a serious thought that how Govt can purchase such emergency vehicles that can easily enter the narrow inner lanes. But how do they think that by charging the parking charges, way for the emergency vehicles will be opened automatically ?

7.  Instead of restricting the sale of new vehicles in Delhi, Govt is now eying to earn more by way of HUGE PARKING Charges on all the vehicles parked by residents, outside their home.

8. The problem has erupted as  Govt has not formed any  vehicular policy for the sale and purchase of Vehicles. Everyone is free to buy any number of vehicles as Govt is GETTING HUGE SUMS BY WAY OF VAT, EXCISE, ROAD TAX,  SERVICE TAX and, GST NOW of 28% and that too after paying Income Tax. Why don’t they attach the vehicles with the Pan Card to check and control the sales of vehicles ?

9.  A typical vehicle stays parked 95 per cent of the time. A 2006 study by the Central Road Research Institute in New Delhi estimate that of the 8,760 hours in a year, an average car’s steering time is only 400 hours. This means it is driven for only about an hour a day. In Delhi this may be 3 to 4 hours a day. It clearly means that while parked at home, these vehicles for the 95% of time are not contributing to any Congestion or pollution.

Therefore, Govt must concentrate on the 5% time of these vehicles while they are either congesting the roads or polluting the environment and hence must levy hefty charges and penalties so that residents are forced to leave them in the parking itself.

It will automatically discourage the sale of new vehicles, though Govt may be against this policy as it will impact its own kitty. 

Therefore we are absolutely against the imposition of any parking charges from the residents, for the parked vehicles outside their home as it will lead to unnecessary harassment and chaos.

Thanks & with best regards,

B S Vohra

President,

East Delhi RWAs Joint Front

http://www.rwabhagidari.com/

May we ask the CAG, on the state of affairs of Delhi Metro?

There are so many questions to be asked from Delhi Metro on the 2nd Tariff hike in less than 6 months, but don't know how, CAG had no question or no comment on the Financial accounts of Delhi Metro ?

Does it mean that the Accounts of Delhi Metro - A Joint Venture between the Central Govt & Delhi Govt are not being Audited by CAG? If yes, how & why the Accounts of a Public Ltd. company are not being Audited by CAG? 

Does it mean that the persons working at Delhi Metro are so perfect, that there is no chance of any human error, mistake or fraud in its books of Accounts & that's why CAG has given it a Clean Chit, vide above letter?

May we ask the CAG if they had viewed the Profit Before Tax figures as well Profit After Tax figures of the last 10 years of Delhi Metro? A simple glance on the figures will automatically generate a dozen questions in mind, on the state of affairs of Delhi Metro.

May we ask the CAG that how the projected expenditure of Delhi Metro has increased by 74% in the past one year, i.e. from Rs 1795 CR in 2016-17 to Rs 3127 CR in 2017-18?

May we ask the CAG that how there is a steep hike in the Operating Expenses of Delhi Metro? How the consultancy & Professional charges increased from 3.09 Lakh to 1,851.58 Lakh? How they could not recover 3,509.91 Lakh from Trade receivables, for which the Bad debts provision is provided?

May we ask the CAG that what was the impact of the First hike of the Tariffs, 6 months ago, on the so called net loss of Rs 378 CR of Delhi Metro?

May we ask the CAG that what was the need to double the tariff in a span of just six months, while the energy costs, staff costs, repair & maintenance costs have risen gradually in a span of 9 years since 2009. Similarly, the ridership also increased gradually, covering all such costs. 

Last but not the least, may we ask the CAG, that how much Service Tax / GST is being charged on the services being provided by Delhi Metro?

Happy Dussehra !

BREATHE DELHI AIR, DIE EARLY

Is there any statement, any comment, from any of the Leaders of Delhi, on this very serious issue ? 

Delhiites are losing up to 9 years of their life, due to worsening pollution in the City, and we are still awaiting a comment / statement from our leaders.

With best regards,

B S Vohra

Social Activist, President,

East Delhi RWAs Joint Front - Federation

www.RWABhagidari.com

www.RWABhagidari.blogspot.in

International Conference on Continuous Emissions Monitoring

Accepted the  invite to attend the 12^th International Conference and Exhibition on the issue of Continuous Emissions Monitoring  at Delhi,  as since last many years, I am directly concerned with all such issues. You can take it as my Social responsibility or the Social cause that I have regularly raised  such issues. Had filed my very first RTI at that time when no one was talking about the issue & those RTIs were duly covered by Print media as well TV channels.

My idea to accept the three day conference was that it will give me much more knowledge on the subject and will add to my experience. So very eagerly and to increase my own awareness on the issue, I started attending the Conference. There were so many speakers to talk about various issues & mostly, all of them were from overseas countries. They presented their research papers in the conference & the audience, including myself, tried to understand them wholeheartedly.

Speakers included Mr. Robert Baxter from USA, Mr. Bernhard Thull from Germany, Mr. Rod Robinson from UK, Mr. Jerome Laplagne from France, Mr. Roland Zepeck from Austria, Mr. Koh Yee Tiong from Singapore, Dr Carlo Bruno from Italy, Ms. Tuula Pellikka from Finland, as well many know persons from CSR, CPCB & other connected fields.

During the conference, I got the opportunity to meet Mr. Erkki Lamminen from Finland who had exhibited  an  equipment to measure the SPM 2.5. Soon we became friendly and we went outside on the road, in the open, near the CBD Ground, Karkardooma, almost at a distance of one KM from the Anand Vihar, which can be said as the most polluted area in the National Capital.

On the very first day, we checked the Real Time status of the SPM 2.5 at around 11am in the morning. Though the Average was at around 60, the PEAKS were almost 3 to 4 times of the average at that minute. The cause of concern was that while we are at that location and while the peaks were up to 3 to 4 times, if we keep inhaling there, what will happen to our Lungs?

Next morning, we again checked the status at around same time & this time, SPM 2.5 was at almost 120, while the peaks were almost double. To my surprise, Mr Lamminen told me that it Finland, the maximum SPM 2.5 was only up to 10 or 20, and while in New Delhi, he was already inhaling at at almost 5 to 10 times, and was really worried about his health.

Surprising factor is that while Chicago University in its latest study has very clearly stated that if we could comply with the WHO standards of Air Quality at Delhi, the residents here can get a life of 9 more years. But seems, no one is concerned, no one is shattered as there is no hue and cry from any corner. Residents just view the news, read and forget, as there is no time to consider for an additional life of 6 to 9 years.

Over 200 vehicles impounded

The three municipal corporations (east, north and south), along with the Delhi Traffic Police, started a special anti-encroachment drive on Monday to remove illegally parked vehicles at 29 ‘No Tolerance Zones’ identified by them.

Cranes, trucks used

A total of 238 vehicles were impounded on Day 1 -- 142 by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), 75 by the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and 21 were towed away by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Around 38 cranes and around a dozen trucks were used for the drive by the civic bodies and around 50 licensing inspectors were deployed for the task.

The 29 stretches include Aurobindo Marg, Mathura Road, Savitri Flyover, Mehrauli-Badarpur Road, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, Dhaula Kuan, Sardar Patel Marg, Najafgarh Road, Pankha Road, Vikas Marg, Ring Road (from Vijay Nagar to Burari Chowk), and Outer Ring Road (between Hanuman Setu and Chandgi Ram Akhara and Bhalswa Road and Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar).

Residents across the city welcomed the move by the authorities to decongest the roads and many said the drive should be expanded to other areas as well.

Move welcomed

B.S. Vohra, the president of East Delhi Resident Welfare Association Joint Front, said that it was a good move, which will not only help reduce traffic but will also control pollution in the city.

“However, if people know that the police and the civic bodies are only targeting the 29 stretches then they will park their vehicles in areas around it. This should be a pan-Delhi initiative,” Mr. Vohra said.

with thanks : Hindu : LINK

Decongestion Drive in Delhi from Today ?

It seems a good step for the betterment of Delhi, as it can not only reduce the traffic jam on the roads, but can also help in controlling the pollution to some extent. But don't you think that people will now try to park the cars in the nearby stretches of those 29 roads, to escape the challan and situation at those nearby stretches will be worsened?

East Delhi has only the Vikas Marg covered under this notification, while the entire East Delhi faces severe traffic jam. During festival seasons, the roads become non commutable in almost every part of East Delhi, due to unauthorized parking all over. So my questions are: Why only 29 roads are covered under this notification? Why this rule is not imposed in the entire Delhi, on all the commercial stretches? 

B S Vohra

Dilli 7 Baje: Decongestion Drives On 29 Delhi Roads From Today : Delhi Aajtak