Every November, the wasteland behind Purana Quila that is earmarked as the Maidan's parking lot overflows. The alternative is India Gate, but parking there means trudging a long way to get to Pragati Maidan.

This year, the parking menace is great enough to allow some enterprising youngsters to begin parking lots of their own. Their `area' encompasses the service lane next to Purana Quila Marg, the area in front of Mater Dei school, and all of the lanes and bylanes of Tilak Lane, home to several VIPs. Vehicle-owners are issued a reassuring slip of paper. But when one of these self-styled `parking attendants' was asked under whose authority he had set out to `organise' parking in the area around Pragati Maidan, the answer is: ``MCD. It contracts the lots out to private contractors who employ us.'' Pragati Maidan, however, falls under the NDMC.

With the Capital being home to over 30 lakh automobiles, even if one per cent visits the Maidan for the trade fair, the surplus left over after the official parking lot invariably spills over to Purana Quila Marg, Tilak Marg and Tilak Lane. At Rs 5 a `token', the amount extracted in a fortnight is staggering. And for residents of the area, apart from the chaos created by swarms of cars descending on their front-yards, it's the security hazard they represent that concerns them the most.

Another irritant for residents is the prospect of being dissuaded from reaching homes by flustered, over-zealous cops and being issued a `parking ticket' or its payment each time they enter or leave the area by so-called parking attendants.

A traffic constable manning the Bhagwan Das-Tilak Marg junction admits that illegal parking lots couldn't function without the connivance of the traffic police. This was demonstrated last year when apparently a DO sent by a resident to the city police commissioner resulted in the police sealing off Tilak Lane. This year, the residents are hoping the newly-floated Ring railway service to Pragati Maidan is a success.