Wrong date costs civic body fee case: activist

“For the past few months,hoarding advertisers and the PMC have been at loggerheads over the issue of payment of skysign fees. The civic administration had slapped legal notices against the the businessmen who put up hoardings. They took the matter to court. October 30 was the date fixed for the hearing. However,since no lawyer turned up at the court for hearing on behalf of the civic body,the court gave the decision in favour of the hoarding advertisers. The court decision went in favour of teh businessmen. Losing the case means losses to the civic administration,” Kumbhar said.

Kumbhar further pointed out: “Since the legal department gave the wrong information,the civic body had to face losses. This incident shows the lack of efficiency of the legal department. Even earlier the civic body has lost cases,owing to absence of lawyers from the PMC.”

‘It’s winter,extend streetlight timings’

Civic activist Vivek Velankar has asked civic authorities to switch on streetlights earlier as winter is setting in and days are becoming shorter.

In a letter,Velankar has said as it turns dark early in winter,streetlights should be switched on at 6.30 pm and switched off at 6.30 am.

“In April,we requested the authorities to reduce timings by an hour as days are longer in summer . Now,as winter is approaching,days have become shorter. By 6.30 pm,it gets dark,” Velankar said to municipal commissioner Mahesh Zagade,in a letter.

The letter says: “Therefore,we make a request to instruct the department concerned to make changes in setting of street lights so that they are on by 6.30 pm and off at 6.30 am.”

The letter requests the department to proactively change settings as per changing season.