Journalism of Courage
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) standing committee on Thursday decided that the civic body and the Pune Smart City Development Corporation Ltd (PSCDCL) will jointly float tenders to lease out advertisement space across the city.
“The PMC as well as the PSCDCL should jointly carry out the process of floating tenders to lease out advertising space in the city. The final proposal should be tabled in the standing committee for approval,” said a resolution tabled by BJP corporator Maruti Tupe in the standing committee.
The PSCDCL in December last year had proposed to implement the tendering process to boost revenue from hoarding charges. If the PSCDCL had implemented the process, it would have been able to collect two per cent of the final cost of the advertisement revenue.
But it became a point of contention between the PSCDCL and the PMC. In a proposal tabled in the standing committee, Municipal Commissioner Saurabh Rao had urged the panel as well as the general body of the PMC to reconsider its decision to allow PSCDCL to conduct the tender process.
“The regulation and control of advertisements in the civic jurisdiction and executing the tender process for it is not related to the PSCDCL,” he had said. He had added, “The PMC has a capable independent mechanism to execute the tender process… therefore, it would be improper to hand over the work in the civic jurisdiction to any other government or semi-government organisation.”
Rao had said that the proposal tabled by the elected representatives in front of the standing committee and the general body was approved without seeking the opinion of the civic administration.
Under the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act and advertising policy, it is the responsibility of the PMC to give permissions and regulate advertisements in the civic jurisdiction.
There are as many as 1,886 legal hoardings in the civic jurisdiction that generate at least Rs 28 crore in revenue per year.
The PSCDCL had claimed that it would ensure revenue of Rs 70 crore to PMC and Rs 20 crore to the PMPML from advertising permissions, while the PMC stated that it could generate more than Rs 100 crore from permissions to place advertisements.
