PMC under fire for lapses in executing billboard policy

The Pune Municipal Corporation administration on Tuesday came under severe criticism for its failure to implement its hoardings policy as per rules and regulations,despite the High Courts directive.

Raising the issue in the civic general body,Congress leader Avinash Bagawe said the administration was very slow in taking action against illegal hoardings that had led to heavy loss of revenue to the civic body. The civic administration has failed to take action against illegal constructions on its own and it is only after the court directed it to that it took some action. It has merely removed the advertisements from the hoarding stands and not pulled them down, he said.

Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Pathak said the civic administration had carried out a survey of hoardings in May last year and found that 1,606 hoardings were legal while at least 327 had come up illegally.

Action has been taken only against 239 hoardings,and only the advertisements have been removed. The steel structures holding the advertisements could not be demolished due to shortage of staff. A drive for the purpose will begin on April 25, he said,adding that the administration would strictly abide by the norms set in the policy,while allowing hoardings to be put up. The hoardings that exist legally would also have to make changes in their location and structure as per the new norms or would be declared illegal. Each hoarding will be allowed only after a clearance from the traffic police department,structure stability certificate,no objection certificate of garden and tax department, he added.

NCP leader Subhash Jagtap urged the civic administration to make the list of hoarding owners available to the elected representatives so that they can make sure the hoardings coming up in their electoral ward are doing so as per the hoarding policy norms.

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