RECENTLY, I went to Latifabad market for shopping. I tried to park my motorcycle near the market but because of rush owing to Eidul Fitr there was no space left for parking.

As I was compelled to park my motorcycle on a heap of garbage, suddenly a young boy came and asked me for Rs20 as ‘parking fee’, although it is Rs10 for motorcycles. He was asking for the parking fee despite knowing that I had parked my motorbike on a mound of garbage.

I asked him to show me the parking slip issued by the municipal committee office. The slip he showed did not have a date and office stamp, which meant it was not an official slip issued by the town’s municipal committee.

The boy told me he was working on daily wages with the support of some employees of the municipal committee and traffic police. Such parking mafias have been looting public and have become a nuisance. The municipal committee should reform their parking system by hiring their own employees and providing official parking slips.

Ahsan Ali Khan

Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2019