The next time you linger in a no-parking zone in Gurgaon, your car is likely to be towed away with driver, you are likely to be challaned for no less than Rs 400 and the traffic authority doing the honours — District Red Cross Society, Gurgaon.
The Gurgaon traffic police do not have provision for spot fining of vehicles so the DRCS has been given charge. ‘‘Gurgaon traffic police can only issue a court challan for an offence but the Deputy Commissioner has made some arrangement with DRCS to collect fines for wrong parking in the city,’’ said senior SP Alok Kumar Roy.
Yet, the fine is not as bad as the way it is meted out. Kanav Grover had gone shopping in the Gurgaon malls on Valentine’s Day when his car was towed away, with his driver inside. Kanav was asked to cough up Rs 400 for wrong parking by one of the musclemen hired by the DRCS. He had neither an identity card nor an authority letter.
‘‘The Gurgaon DC has given us the approval and the fines collected go to DRCS,’’ said one of the men. ‘‘Red Cross should find better ways of collecting money,’’ said Kanav. Sharing his fate was Satender Kumar, a businessman: ‘‘I don’t mind paying but I don’t like the behaviour of these men.”
‘‘The Gurgaon DC is also chairman of the society and in July, 2002, he has allowed us to collect penalty charges for wrong parking in the city,’’ said DRCS assistant secretary N.K. Behl. ‘‘This was a temporary arrangement till the administration bought four traffic cranes. Since I am chairman of the society I thought they would do a good job,’’ replied Gurgaon DC Anurag Aggarwal.
Two of the four cranes are on MG Road. ‘‘The cranes are taken on rent for Rs 720 daily, and we issue 4-5 penalty receipts a day for wrong parking,’’ says Behl. P.K. Jha, a pan vendor at Sikandarpur, however, says he sees a crane towing away vehicles at least every 10 minutes. This correspondent found only four receipts for challans issued on Sunday.
‘‘We will look into the matter if there is any discrepancy,’’ assured Aggarwal. Commissioner (Gurgaon) Gulab Singh Sorot said he was not ‘‘aware of any such thing’’.
Not our job: IRCS in Delhi
The Indian Red Cross Society in New Delhi has a different say altogether. Said N.K. Singh, director (information): ‘‘The District Red Cross should not get into managing traffic solutions. This does not fall under the scope of IRCS. We will get it investigated.”