Panaji: Questions have been raised over the continued collection of parking fees in Panaji after the contract for collecting vehicle parking charges under the jurisdiction of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) allegedly ended this month.CCP corporator Leonid Furtado had raised the issue after allegedly seeing pay-parking wardens collecting fees in Panaji and claimed that the contract for vehicle parking fee collection under the CCP’s jurisdiction had ended on Aug 15.“This is a totally illegal and unauthorised collection of parking fees. The public should be made aware of this,” Furtado said.CCP commissioner Clen Madeira clarified that the collection was authorised following a resolution passed in Dec 2025 by the previous council. The new council came into effect on March 30 this year.Madeira who was commissioner in the previous term as well, said the previous council, decided to extend the contract by six months after the contractor sought compensation for the period during the Covid-19 pandemic when he had continued carrying out the parking collection business.“Otherwise we would have to break our funds to compensate him for those six months. The previous council therefore decided to extend it to settle it. So now it has been extended till Jan 2027,” Madeira said.He further said that parking wardens are authorised to collect fees under the extended contract.Furtado, however, said, “If a resolution could be passed eight months in advance, what stopped the corporation from inviting tenders and allowing the highest bidder to participate? The people of Panaji and the exchequer should benefit from a transparent bidding process. How can an outgoing council take a decision that effectively binds the new council? This amounts to bypassing the tender process and needs to be questioned.”
