Delhi parking wars intensify, over 7k calls to police this yr

Till October 25 this year, the Delhi Police received 7,328 calls reporting violent disputes over parking on neighbourhood roads - more than the cumulative number of such calls received in the previous two years, shows official data shared by the police.

- Sanjeev K Jha

According to data, the police received 3,367 and 2,413 parking disputes related calls in 2022 and 2021 (3,145 and 2,267 till October 25), respectively. Besides injuries to scores of people in these clashes over parking space, three people have died in the cases reported in the past three years, according to data.

On February 17 this year, a 52-year-old man and his son, returning home from a wedding, were shot and injured by their neighbour and his friends following an altercation over parking of their cars in northeast Delhi's Yamuna Vihar.

On June 25, two brothers were allegedly stabbed by their neighbour in north Delhi's Kirari area after an argument over parking a scooter.

Similarly, on July 3, a 37-year-old man and his parents were allegedly thrashed with sticks by their neighbours during a quarrel over parking a motorcycle in outer Delhi's Mangolpuri.

These incidents show a disturbing problem that is symptomatic of a city that has maximum number of registered vehicles but very few organised parking spaces. However, police data indicates that the problem has only grown acute this year.

The highest number of such calls-816- were received from west district, followed by 766 (south-west), 702 (south) and 682 (Dwarka), shows the data. Also, of the total 7,380 calls till October 25, 43% (3,190) were received after June 30 this year, according to the data.