VR Mall flout the Supreme Court order for providing free parking in Surat
Surat (Gujarat): Beware the next time you are forced to pay parking fees for your vehicle in the parking lot of a shopping mall. In a classic instance, a conscientious citizen filed a police report...
Surat (Gujarat): Beware the next time you are forced to pay parking fees for your vehicle in the parking lot of a shopping mall. In a classic instance, a conscientious citizen filed a police report against the management of the VR Mall located on the Surat-Dumas road in Piplod for disregarding the Supreme Court’s order that commercial malls provide free parking for one hour.
Sanjay Ezhawa, a social activity and realtor filed police complaint against the VR Mall management and parking in charge for flouting the Supreme Court guidelines for allowing free parking to the visitors in the parking lot for one hour.
Ezhawa went to the VR Mall for shopping on Saturday morning and parked his car in the basement parking of the shopping mall. He was asked to cough up parking fees by the parking staff, which Ezhawa refused to pay. However, when he returned within one hour of his shopping, he found a huge lock on the car’s tyre.
He (Ezhawa) immediately contacted the 100 helpline of the Surat city police and narrated the incident along with the Supreme Court order. The lock on Ezhawa’s car was opened in the presence of the cops from the Umra police station and the VR Mall’s parking management.
In its order dated October 15, 2019, the Supreme Court of India stated that the owners and managers of the commercial buildings falling in the ‘Mercantile’ and ‘Assembly’ categories mentioned in Regulation No. 7.4 of the GDCR, shall provide free parking to all the visitors, at least for one hour of their entry, and thereafter may charge reasonable parking fees commensurable to the services provided by them. However, such fees shall not be more than Rs 30 for a four-wheeler and Rs 10 for two-wheelers.
Sanjay Ezhawa, the social activist told TBT, “The VR Mall management is maliciously harassing the visitors using their basement parking to park their vehicles. The visitors are asked to cough up parking fees as and when they enter the parking lot. I was meted with the same treatment, but since I know the Supreme Court order, they were on the back foot”
Despite repeated attempts, the management of VR Mall was not available for comments.
