New Delhi, Apr 3 (IANS): The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday slammed the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) for increasing the charges of surface parking in the Green Park area.

The MLA from Kalkaji constituency, Atishi, addressing a press conference on Saturday, said the BJP-ruled civic authority has proposed to increase the surface-level parking rates from Rs 20 to Rs 40 per hour.

"The decision will directly affect those living in all the areas of South Delhi and those visiting from other districts for various purposes. We have very well observed that within the last year, the BJP ruled MCD and especially SDMC, has been trying to pull all the strings and come out with new ways repeatedly to implement policies of increase in taxes which implicitly affect the financial condition of citizens of Delhi," Atishi said.

Speaking to IANS on this issue, a SDMC spokesperson said the proposal for hike in parking has been made only for surface parking located near a multi-storey parking set up by the civic authority at Green Park.

The proposal has been passed by the standing committee of SDMC and the final approval will come from the House meeting.

The civic body had developed a multi-storey parking at Green Park which can accommodate around 150 cars at one time. However, the SDMC says only 30-40 percent of parking slots are being used because of several surface parking are being run illegally at its surroundings.

Narender Chawla, standing committee chairman of SDMC said, "A multi-storey parking was set up in Green Park in view to stop illegal parking on roads and to avoid congestion in the market. But our inspection team found that hardly 30-40 percent parking space is being used. And the main reason is illegal surface parking being run there."