Survey illegal parking areas, Allahabad HC tells LMC

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has directed the Lucknow Municipal Corporation to conduct a survey in its municipal limits as to at what places illegal parkings are being organised and run either by the shopkeepers or mall owners or by anyone else. The bench has also directed the LDA to file its affidavit on whether the big commercial buildings such as multiplexes, cinema halls, theatres, auditorium and shopping malls are providing the parking facilities and as to whether they are charging the general public for providing such facilities.
"LDA shall also indicate as to under which provision the private owners of these buildings are levying the parking charges," said the bench.
A bench of Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice OP Shukla passed the order on a PIL moved by one Rajiv Agrawal. The bench has directed both - LMC and LDA - to furnish before it the details as required by it till May 25.
The petitioner's counsel, Amrendra Nath Tripathi, had sought removal of encroachment in the form of illegal parking near a mall on a public road in Vibhuti Khand area of the state capital.
The petitioner has sought direction to the authorities to ensure that the parkings are run in the city only on places earmarked in the Lucknow Master Plan 2031.
In the course of hearing, the state counsel said that the state government on August 25, 2021 had directed all the authorities concerned to ensure that illegal parkings being run in the urban areas as also the parkings being run on the roads be closed. The state government's order also provided that those parking areas where the civic amenities like shed, draining water and toilets were not available, should also be cancelled.