Corporates bow to power of two, remove hoardings

And guess what? Five corporates have actually withdrawn their advertisements from hoardings which violate a Bombay High Court order stating that billboards defacing heritage structures and those located in Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) areas must be pulled down.

Following visits to corporate houses, presentations and request letters penned by Godrej and Jindal, Hindustan Lever has removed its hoarding near Bal Bhavan at Charni Road, Zee TV from Worli Seaface, MTV from Oval Maidan, DSP Merrill Lynch from Flora Fountain and DHL from Wislon College Gymkhana over the last three months.

Add to this the 32 hoardings that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has torn down on the directions of the Bombay High Court.

On September 2, 2002, the court had ordered hoarding agencies to remove billboards that violated heritage guidelines and those which fell in the eco-sensitive CRZ Zone. If they failed to comply within two months, the court had directed the BMC to bring them down within another month. The order was delivered on a Public Interest Litigation filed by Dr Anahita D. Pundole, a doctor with Sion Hospital, in April 2002.

‘‘When I ask them to shun hoardings, they listen to me. I am no slogan-shouting activist. I have no vested interests,’’ says Jindal. Adds Godrej: ‘‘At least five private business houses and one large public sector bank, the State Bank of India, have given us an undertaking that they will comply with our requests.’’ Add to that the Godrej and Jindal group companies, and that’s an impressive start.