New York(IANS) : Diwali on Friday was an official ‘parking holiday’, according to the City of New York’s calendar.
It was the second year for Diwali to be on the list of 34 days — mostly religious — when parking rules are relaxed in the city that suffers chronic parking problems.
But it was the first year for it to have an impact this year since Diwali in 2006 fell on a Saturday (Oct 21).
New York’s Daily News reported the matter as “Hindus ‘Arrive’ in city”.
The New York Times also reported the festival, but only to make the point that there were one too many parking holidays in the city when ‘alternate-side’ parking regulations are suspended.
Alternate side is ostensibly about street cleaning but really about collecting fines.
The story of how Diwali got on the parking holidays list goes back to 2004 when an Indian college student took a look at the 33 parking holidays and noted that although there were Christian, Jewish, Muslim and secular parking holidays, there were none for Hindus.
In 2005 another student followed up and helped convince Councilwoman Gale Brewer, representing Manhattan, to introduce legislation to add Diwali to the list.
It was passed but too late in the year, so it took effect in 2006.