TMC cracks down on illegal hoardings

He added that in some places people were putting up resistance to remove the hoardings. The civic administration has distributed a list of legal hoardings to all the wards. The ones not mentioned in the list have to be removed.

Last week,the High Court had slapped a fine of Rs 5000 on civic officials including the commissioner of Thane. The court had given civic body two weeks to remove the illegal hoardings in the city. The court particularly asked the TMC to ensure all illegal hoardings are removed from pavement and roads. According to petitioner Prabakar Choudhary,who had filed a PIL,the roads were blocked due to the scaffoldings erected on the pavements and roads.  

Besides hoardings of commercial nature,political ones also dot the urban sprawl. Hoardings belonging to politicians were put up on the pretext of giving compliments for religious festivals or birthdays.

Member of the Legislative Council and Thane city NCP chief Jitendra Awhad said,“There are more hoardings in the city than what has been approved by the TMC. This is being done with the connivance of the civic officials and the advertisers. The political hoardings are put up only for a few days and do not pose a problem.”