Kazan authorities to add free time in fee-based parking lots
Officials promised to add parking spaces in front of the Defence Ministry hospital
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In Kazan, they will increase the time of free parking in paid municipal parking lots, and also expand the parking space near the new military hospital. There are not enough parking spaces here, and signs prohibiting even stopping are posted along the road. This became known at a meeting of the Constitutional Council of Tatarstan where they are considering an appeal from Kazan residents seeking the right to free parking in front of socially significant institutions. Tatarstan State Council deputy, Hero of Russia Rasim Baksikov also came to talk about the parking problems of those involved in the special military operation. Read more about it in a report of Realnoe Vremya.
“Ransom” for the car that delivered the wounded
Tatarstan State Council deputy, Hero of Russia Rasim Baksikov took part in the meeting of the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Tatarstan. The parliamentarian told Realnoe Vremya that the reason for this was a recent ugly story:
“The father of a wounded soldier involved in the special military operation contacted me. He brought his son to the Defence Ministry’s hospital for treatment after being wounded. The son is on crutches and can't walk far. And there was no parking space, which is very small there. The car was not allowed into the hospital, which is a restricted area, and he had to leave the car in the area of the prohibitory sign. When he returned, the car was gone — it had been towed away, and subsequently it had to be ‘bought out’ from the impound lot.”
For the owner of an old domestic “ten,” this cost a pretty penny. The deputy — a hero of the special military operation said that at a meeting of the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Tatarstan, he achieved the main thing — representatives of the Kazan Executive Committee “heard” him and promised to find a way out of the situation.
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Rasim Baksikov emphasised that it is necessary to ensure compliance with the requirement of federal legislation, according to which free parking should be provided not only to hospitals, but also to hospitals, kindergartens, schools, state and municipal institutions.
Signs everywhere: pay!
“The question of understanding what the legislator meant by indicating the space that can be used for parking without charging a fee remains open,” recalled applicant Teimuraz Minjia having received the floor at the meeting of the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Tatarstan. “This remains a key problem that causes reasonable complaints and sometimes even indignation of Kazan residents.”
Consideration of this issue at the last meeting of the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Tatarstan moved from dead centre. Last time, representatives of the executive committee firmly stood on the fact that almost all paid municipal parking is organised within the street and road network. This time, the head of the State Traffic Inspectorate of Kazan, Mikhail Savin, came to the meeting. He reported that the area in front of Tatvoenlistment Office building, where the district court and district administration are also nearby and which recently became a paid municipal parking lot, does not belong to the road network.
The absence of a free alternative to paid parking in the city, as provided by law, was confirmed during the answers of Teimuraz Minjia and representatives of the Kazan Executive Committee to questions from members of the Constitutional Council.
“As an active user [of parking lots], have you encountered self-government organizations of free parking lots?” Minjia was asked.
“There is such a parking lot — in Gorki. But this is the only such place in the city,” he answered. And he reminded that there is not a single such parking lot in the city centre — neither for visitors to institutions, nor for tourists, who are not treated at all hospitably in Kazan. “Wherever a tourist goes, there are signs everywhere: pay, pay, pay!
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To the question of the member of the Constitutional Council Elmira Mustafina to the representatives of the municipality, why the city did not provide even special information boards for free municipal parking zones — all the approved documentation concerns only the equipment of paid areas, the answer was that free parking is already possible in those places where it is not prohibited.
“This is an appeal to authority”
At the meeting, the conclusion of the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Tatarstan on the consideration of appeals of Kazan lawyer Teimuraz Minjia and disabled person of the third group Vadim Parfyonov was not announced — this will happen later. But the lawyer explained in a conversation with Realnoe Vremya that, unfortunately, this conclusion in any case cannot be used in the further fight for the legal right of citizens and guests of Kazan to have a free alternative to paid municipal parking.
“This is an appeal was a way for me to attract the attention of the public and government agencies to the problem. In addition, this is an appeal to authority, because the members of the Constitutional Council are professionals, and its head is an iconic figure in the justice system at the republican level.”
In addition, the lawyer added, the appeal to the Constitutional Council of Tatarstan has already brought real results — the executive committee promised to increase the time of free parking in the paid parking lot.
“True, they did not specify by how much — they said that perhaps by 15 minutes, and for that we are already thankful,” Minjia noted not without sarcasm. “In half an hour, you can probably park your car, run, for example, to the doctor's office or an office in a government institution and return to the parking lot.”
The interlocutor also added that during the past three meetings of the Constitutional Council of the Republic of Tatarstan, he did not receive an answer from representatives of the Kazan Executive Committee as to why and how parking spaces are created, why the balance of interests between the authorities and citizens is not observed, and why the interests of citizens should be infringed in favour of the interests of public authorities.
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