BMC toughens stand on hoardings, issues notices
Mumbai: The BMC is pulling out all stops to ensure that its new policy guidelines on the display of hoardings are implemented effectively.
After serving notices to 119 owners whose hoardings were placed one above the other, under the new set of rules that came into force on April 1, the civic body served notices to another 21 hoarding owners on Monday.
Earlier, of the 119 who were served notices, the BMC got replies from 114 parties requesting a hearing, while the remaining five had complied with the BMC notice and pulled down their hoardings.
The new notices have been given by a two-member committee of senior civic officials appointed to speed up the hearing according to court directives. Once the hearing is over, the civic body will take action against those violating the new norms.
Civic officials said the drive will be over within a year. However, the BMC will have to wait for some more time before it can take any action on many high-profile cases that are mired in legal proceedings for violation of hoarding guidelines.
In April, civic officials had pulled down hoardings at the Towers of Silence lane in Kemps Corner, but not before one of the hoarding owners approached the HC for relief. The court ordered a status quo. There are about 2,851 hoardings in the city. Anahita Pundole, who had filed a PIL against unauthorised hoardings, had told TOI that it is ironic that the BMC is introducing the new guidelines when the old ones havent been implemented yet. The old guidelines were good enough to tackle the hoarding menace, but they were never implemented. TNN