Madurai Corpn urged to drop fee for parking vehicles on roadsides

MADURAI: The proposed move by authorities to charge parking fee for vehicles parked along the roads in Madurai should not be implemented, demanded merchants.

Parking of vehicles is allowed along roads for shop owners and their workers, but normally, four-wheelers would be restricted from parking in congested areas. This would take a toll on businesses as it would public coming to market areas. Employees or staff members would also suffer if parking charges are introduced, Ashraf Yusuf, secretary, Tamil Nadu Textile Merchants Association, Madurai, said on Monday.

Families of the working class, who report to work every day, remain largely dependent on their salaries and parking charge would eat a significant portion in their monthly budget. Apart from the customers, lives of families of over 20,000 employees and several thousands of their dependents would be affected by the move, he said.

Further, he added at a time when the state government was lending a helping hand for small-time traders to grow economically, such a measure would hit them hard and they hoped that the government would drop the move.

Instead, the government can give passes to shop owners and their staff members need to park their vehicles in specified locations on roads. Even at Madurai railway junction, just for dropping a person and leaving the premises a fee of Rs 50 was being collected. Such a practice should be stopped. The 10-minute slot for dropping passengers was suspended for no reason, he said.