One of the small, but intensely annoying practices that I am increasingly finding is that of security guards in front of large office/commercial buildings, obviously acting on instructions, to “reserve” the parking space in front of the buildings for those who are visiting an office in that building, and to prevent others from parking there. 

 In fact, Corporation Bank in J P Nagar  3rd Phase (1st Main, along the Mini Forest) also went to the extent of putting up cardboard notices on the chain-link fence saying that the space was for their customers. Saner counsels have prevailed and the notices have been taken down now.

 Residents along the Mini Forest in J P Nagar 3rd Phase are particularly galled by the fact that the IT companies who have their offices along 1st Main Road have converted the entire 1-km stretch into de facto free parking for themselves. “It is impossible for any of our friends who visit to find parking during working hours on weekdays,” fumes Mr Shetty. “There seems to be no way of enforcing the common citizen’s right to park in any public space where parking is allowed.” Call-center cabbies jam the road at night, and it’s often an ordeal even to drive past them, as they are parked haphazardly on the road sometimes.

Most of our rules are based on simple consideration for one’s fellow-citizen, and the assumption that others have the same rights that we do. When this construct breaks down, corporates and commercial organizations usurp the roads and deprive common citizens of their rights. Our lack of civic sense seems only to get amplified with the size of the organization that takes advantage of the lack of enforcement of our rules and regulations.