There is a rumour afoot that the
authorities – in Delhi at least – might do something about
parking norms, like insisting that people park only on their own
property. If enforced strictly, this could bring welcome relief.
Doubled parked streets are starting to be the norm in most cities and
I see cars and private buses parked on public property as a theft of
valuable space.
This does not, however, solve the
problem of parking once you leave your property to go somewhere else,
which is the whole point of having a motor vehicle. If you're going
to a commercial spot, hopefully, there is a parking lot nearby. It is
much more troubling when you go visiting people. Many highrise
residential societies put up notices saying: “Visitor Parking Not
Allowed”.
This is so much the norm, particularly
in Mumbai, that we no longer think to challenge it. I didn't even
know that, according to existing norms, at least 25 percent of the
parking space in housing complexes was reserved for visitors. The
notices forbidding visitor parking, then, were not quite legal.
However, societies often have little choice because many builders
diverge from the blueprint and sell off the space meant for visitor
parking.
I found out about the rule only in
recent months, after it was reported that the Maharashta government
is altering it. The 25 percent allocation was no longer seen as
practical and is being slashed to five percent. Whether even five
percent will turn out to be practical is anybody's guess.
Not all the problems associated with
parking are about space though. They are also about an attitude of
entitlement once you acquire a vehicle.
In April last year, there was a
bloodbath: it started out as a family feud, turned into a parking
squabble, and ended with two men and one woman dead. Jaspal Singh and
Gurjeet Singh were reportedly quite well off. They lived in a large
bungalow but obviously, there are only so many cars that can be
parked outside a house. Between them, the two brothers owned as many
as nine cars. One night, the brothers got into an argument about who
was going to park where. According to news reports, brother smashed
the other's car, who then attacked him with a kirpan (dagger). Other
family members got involved, as did the gun-toting personal security
officers accompanying one of the men. The latter opened fire.
This might appear to be a typically
Delhi story: too many fancy cars, too much money at stake, too much
aggression, fragile egos. But it could happen even to those who do
not have as much money, and don't even have cars. Earlier this year,
a 19-year-old was reportedly beaten to death as a result of a parking
dispute in Delhi's Sultanpuri area. This one was about a scooter. In
Mumbai too, last year, there was more than one ugly fight that ended
with calamity across various suburbs – Chembur, Powai, Amboli. In
one case, a security guard assaulted a biker. In another, a couple
beat The year before that, another death had been reported, this time
that of a retired army Major. Another report was from
Thiruvananthpuram.
Based on the details mentioned
newspaper reports, a lot of these fights seem to start the same way.
Someone's vehicle is blocking someone else's way, either on purpose
or inadvertently. An apology and a little patience would suffice to
avert bloodshed. What we need, perhaps, are kiosks selling apologies
and patience at all petrol pumps.
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