LUCKNOW: For security personnel in parking lots of malls, it is a choice between doing their job and keeping it. While rules do not allow anyone to park vehicles at will on mall premises, VIPs are exceptions at such places.“Agar hum inhe rokenge to humari naukri khatre me pad jayegi (If we check them, it will put my job at risk),” comes the reply of a private security guard on being asked about preferential treatment to VIP vehicles entering the premises.While common people pay parking charges—the amount even inflates on weekends and holidays—to pay and park their cars in parking lots, no such restrictions are enforced for vehicles belonging to police, government or Army officers or judges, all of whom are given a free passage by mall authorities to park on their premises anywhere they want.In a reality check in top five malls of the city, TOI found that the preferential treatment given to VIPs is not just by mall authorities but also by police officials on duty.Many cars with such ‘VIP’ stickers pasted on the front and rear windshields were parked outside malls in a haphazard manner, leading to traffic jams. Many others were driven into the premises without being stopped or without being directed to the designated parking area. No security or police personnel or towing vehicle came for them.Even at places where traffic violations were being checked actively, VIP vehicles were left out of the process while challans were issued for other vehicles.When TOI asked guards at malls about the unfair system, most of them remained tight-lipped. Some said they had orders from seniors and others admitted to deliberately ignoring violations by VIPs because they did not want to put their job at risk.“We are poor and have secured this job as guard for a living. Those coming in VIP vehicles have power; we are nothing in front of them. They can take our jobs away,” said a guard in a Gomtinagar mall.The general manager of another mall, Saraswati, denied any such partial treatment and said, “There is nothing in our mall policies where any VIP vehicle is given special treatment. Only if somebody has a problem in walking do we allow the vehicle on the premises. Otherwise, it is a big no.”ASP traffic RS Nim said that even if certain vehicles were avoiding challan by any means, under the new system of e-challan , no VIP or other vehicle would be able to escape it. The system is now being used vigorously across the city, he added.“Police do their duty without being partial to anybody. Several police vehicles have also been towed in the recent past. There is no partiality when it comes to issuing challan,” said Nim.

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