Hoarding truth: If you act tough, all you lose is Rs 400 …………Mansi Choksi I TNN
Mumbai: What action is taken against an owner if he refuses to bring down a hoarding and oversteps the permissible time-limit? He stands to lose a meagre Rs 400 as deposit, which is paid for a hoarding as large as 10 ft by 3 ft. In addition, the BMC will do the dirty work and use its manpower and equipment to bring down the hoarding.
Further, in case the owner has not sought permission from the civic body before putting up the hoarding, the BMC will not penalise him. Instead, the corporation will volunteer to remove the hoarding if it gets a complaint.
Data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has exposed several such loopholes in the civic body’s take on illegal hoardings. “It’s public money that is being put to use for the removal of hoardings. Why would the owners want to pull them down for a deposit of just Rs 400, applicable to hoardings as large as 12 ft by 3 ft? The removal of hoardings requires manpower and equipment, and if the BMC is doing it, I don’t see what will motivate the advertisers to bring the hoardings down,’’ said G R Vora, member of the F-North Ward Citizens’ Federation who filed the RTI. According to the RTI reply, permission was granted to two applicants to put up only five banners in FNorth ward after January 1. The permissible time-limit is five days for commercial use and 10 days for political use.
“But hundreds of such banners, posters and hoardings have been put up; they have been there for months together,’’ said Vora. The BMC admitted that the various hoardings and cloth banners put up on footpaths and dividers along Dr B A Road, grilles at Sion Circle, Maheshwari Udyan, Dadar TT Circle, Five Gardens area, Shanmukhananda Hall area, Nappoo Road and Adenwalla Road were all illegal. “The hoardings and banners continue to remain at these spots,’’ said Vora.
Asked what action is taken if hoardings are fixed without seeking permission, put up at sites that are not permitted by the BMC or are bigger than what is allowed, the civic body said in its reply that the only step it takes is that of removal.
The BMC further pointed out that no penalty had been imposed on any person for violation of the rules since January 1. If a hoarding owner chops a tree or cuts a branch to guarantee better visibility, the only action taken by the BMC is licence revocation. “There is no way to deter a person from committing the same mistake again,’’ said Vora.