With no takers for the DDA-owned parking lot in the Village, unplanned parking is not only blocking the main road but is also giving several outlets here a run for their money. There are complaints the parking lot is too distant from the shops, gets waterlogged, has no electricity and even that it used to be a cremation ground.

The wide, concrete approach road lined with fenced forests and parked cars on both sides narrows at the entrance. On the cramped entrance road lined with parked cars and grazing cows, there is no space for either the waiting Tata Sumo to go in or the Contessa to go out. After much hostile honking and abusing, the Sumo begins to reverse as the Contessa inches forwardand tries to edge ahead.

No one's listening to the parking attendant. There are cries of lag jaayegi as the aggressive Contessa lunges forward missing the Sumo and a parked Ambassador's rear by a hair's breadth.

More cars are parked haphazardly outside the locked gate of a now defunct parking lot which had opened opposite the Deer Park entrance about a year ago.

Harbir Singh who runs a PCO booth in the Bistro Complex had got the contract for the parking lot. Unable to recover the initial Rs 1.5 lakh payment, the contract is a losing proposition.

``Anyone who takes it will run into losses. I put a gate there on my own expenses,'' says Singh. ``People complained the parking was too far away from the shopping area. You have to walk for 10 to 15 minutes before you reached the shops.''

Singh realised this after his son fell from the terrace and suffered a serious injury. ``I just picked him up in my arms. I didn't wait to take my car out from the parking because I would have to walk till thereand take it out from there. It would take too much time. Instead I just stopped a car of a neighbour and took him to Mohinder Hospital,'' he said.

The erstwhile parking lot looks more like a jungle with overgrown grass and shady trees. There are no lights and the locals say the area used to be a cremation ground.

As the road leading inside slopes downwards, rains bring only complaints of waterlogging. Harbir says Indian diplomats complained more about parking in the lot than the foreigners.

``The Indian high officials come in the car and then don't want to walk the rest. They push their cars inside and there is a big jam. The foreigners just leave their cars in the lot,'' he says.

Adding to the problem is the fact that most of the cars parked in the village belong to the proprietors themselves.

DDA officials say the parking space is a ``disputed'' site. ``They want a site which is closer to the market. But we can't give that space because it is not ours. But they are trying to encroach on it,''said a DDA official on condition of anonymity.

Harbir Singh confirmed the Village association was in favour of converting a garden near a school in the Village into a parking area as it was much closer to the market. The DDA has, however, not done anything about it, he says.

Disgusted with the clutter of shops that locals have dubbed ``Karol Bagh type'', those who don't want to risk losing their clientele over a ``dent dispute'' have moved out.