Demand for withdrawal of parking fee

Demand for withdrawal of parking fee
: From a CorrespondentJORHAT, Feb 19: The Managing Committee of the Jananayak Debeswar Sarma Civil Hospital here has sought 10 days time to take a decision on whether they will withdraw the parking fee which has been levied inside the compound of the Hospital since February 16. Members of the Jorhat Regional Students’Union (JRSU) gheraoed the Superintendent of the Hospital and demanded immediate withdrawal of the levy yesterday.The levy has raised public ire ever since it was imposed. At a time when Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and State Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma are doing their utmost to streamline the medical sector and have taken steps to introduce a slew of schemes to benefit the poor, this levy inside the Civil Hospital premises can be described as a contradiction.This worship of Mammon by the Management Committtee headed by Jorhat MP Bijoy Krishna Handique, at a hospital which has been established with the express purpose to give treatment free of cost has raised the hackles of the people.The parking fee is Rs 10 for four-wheelers, Rs 5 for two-wheelers and Rs 2 for cycles.The Superintendent reiterated that the decision to levy a parking fee was taken with Handique in the chair at a meeting held recently and if the decision is to be revoked it will have to be done with another emergent meet of the Management Committee in the next few days.A person was overheard to say that this move by Handique may lose him some votes in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections to which the MP is hoping to win for the sixth time. “It proves without saying the double-faced standard being adopted by the Congress government,” he said adding “give with one hand and take with the other.” It may be mentioned that in the neighbouring district of Sivasagar this levy has not been imposed.