MANGALURU: The parking contractor at Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) has been slapped with a fine of Rs 2,58,500 after a video clip of a customer being charged Rs 5 in excess went viral. The contractor was also made to offer the service by not charging any parking fee on Tuesday.
In the video clip, a customer questions a parking lot staffer for charging him Rs 60 for parking his car while the actual fee is Rs 55 and threatens to complain. The staffer dares him to complain by showing him his ID card. The incident triggered an outrage in social media with people slamming the MIA authorities for their failure to check such incidents.
MIA Director V V Rao slapped the fine on SS Enterprises — the parking contractor.He told reporters that the incident took place about two months ago. It was for the third time that they have received such a complaint. “On first two occasion, the operator was let off with a fine of a few thousand rupees. This time, we decided to fine him 10% of the monthly licence fee,” he said.
Rao said if the operator is caught fleecing customers again then MIA will not hesitate to terminate his contract. He said the operator has provision to go for appeal against the fine in the court of law. But he expressed confidence of MIA getting a favourable judgment as they have evidence. He said AAI has come up with a new vehicle parking policy which will be implemented in a few months time.
The policy will do away with the 7-minutes free-time parking, but will rationalise parking fee.
In order to make the staff behave properly with passengers, Rao said MIA in association with Srinivasa College, has started conducting grooming classes for taxi drivers, trolley retrievers and parking staff since last November.