NIMS slapped Rs 50000 fine for illegally collecting parking fee

According to an order (GO 63) issued by the state government on 'Police on Parking' dated February 20, 2018, it is illegal for hospitals to collect parking fees. The order was issued to deal with various issues related to parking and regulated the collection of parking fees.

However, as per a recent media report in The Hans India, some government hospitals and medical organizations continue to violate government orders.

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The issue came to the light after a citizen of Hyderabad, Mahesh, after getting issued with a parking ticket at the NIMS hospital approached the Director of Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management (EV & DM). Eventually, a complaint was filed by him against NIMS since the officials were not strict. The complaint stated that, "Even after paying Rs 100 for the registration at NIMS for the treatment, I was charged with RS 10 as parking fee." He further made a final submission of the complaint, the parking ticket, and the hospital bill to EV & DM.

Many visitors and attendants of the patients have been voicing out the issue that the NIMS hospital charged a parking fee of around Rs 10 per hour. In spite of being a government organization, a private agencies' staff is recruited in the parking area who collects the parking charges and issue the receipts in the name of NIMS, reports the daily.

Commenting on the issue, an EV & DM official stated, "Charging parking fee at the hospitals is against the parking policy of the State government. Also as per the Building Rules GO 168, the adequate number of off-street parking spaces as specified in the building rules will have to be provided by the owner of commercial establishments, malls, multiplexes, to meet the demand generated by the employees and visitors."

He added that the management has been allegedly leasing and misusing the parking and common spaces of the building. Subsequently, NIMS, Panjagutta has been fined an amount of Rs 50000 since collecting parking fees violates the GO 63 and under section 24 and section 28 of Telangana Apartments Act and Rules, 1987.

Meanwhile, the NIMS hospital authorities told The Hans India, that family members of the patients in the hospital have to pay the parking charges. A section of the NIMS campus is reportedly leased out to a private agency, which charges the parking fees with the name of NIMS while free parking spaces are available for the hospital staff and doctors.

Calling the practice illegal, an anti-corruption activist Vijay Gopal said, "It is out rightly illegal to charge a parking fee. There have been constant violations by the commercial establishments. A permanent solution has to be arrived at by EV&DM."

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