No parking, please

It is now well-known that the Centre and states governments do not see eye to eye on many issues, the National Counter-Terrorism Centre and General Reserve Police for Railways being recent ones. But the disconnect between officials in Delhi and those in the states came to the fore once again at a recent meeting on roadways and transportation. The Centre was keen to highlight the problem of parking in major cities and the need to devise a strategy to address it. The proposal, said some officials, was not accepted on the grounds that the dearth of parking is only a big-city problem, especially in Delhi. A nation-wide strategy, therefore, was not feasible because the problem was not acute in small districts and towns. The smaller states like those in the north-east may have a point, but given the rate at which care sales in small town India are growing, they may rue the decision later.