The Indian Express          23.09.2013

BMC on overdrive to remove illegal hoardings

In spite of BMC’s concessions to Ganpati mandals during the 10-day
Ganeshotsav festival, over 2,000 illegal banners, hoardings and boards
that flout a Bombay High Court ban, were removed since the start of the
festival from across the city on September 9.

Nearly half of these —991 of 2063 removed banners, posters, and
boards —were political in nature. This includes 419 illegal political
flags. Another 38 per cent or 798 of these signages were religious and
274, or 13 per cent, were commercial.

The civic body allowed 648 mandals across Mumbai to put up
hoardings as a source of revenue. The permission was restricted to
within 100 metres of the mandal concerned.

Till Saturday, 272 police complaints had been filed with the
Mumbai Police on the issue and the corporation had begun prosecution in
48 cases. The civic body till September 17 has filed First Information
Reports (FIRs) against 263 alleged perpetrators. Of these, maximum were
registered in Kurla, Mulund, Goregaon-Malad, and Dadar and Mahim areasof
the city.

“We paid fees to the BMC to put up all the commercial hoardings
in and around the mandals but everyone believes we are responsible for
the hoardings that were put up illegally outside the limits of permitted
space. However that is not true and there was nothing we could do about
it – it is the BMC’s lookout to ensure illegal hoardings are removed,”
said N Walawalkar, secretary of Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav
Samanvay Samiti (BSGSS), an umbrella organisation of Ganpati mandals in
the city. It may be noted that prior to the start of celebrations, the
BSGSS had been pushing for an extension of the 100-metre perimeter for hoardings.

“Hoardings during festival season are a sensitive matter. We have
to wait till the end of celebrations before we pull down the illegal
hoardings else we are accused of hurting public and religious sentiment.
We are working as best as we can,” said a senior official of the civic
licence department. Data on action taken against illegal hoardings shows that
since the start of September, after 608 illegal signboards were pulled
down post Dahi Handi celebrations on August 28, the civic body only
began the removal process after the fifth day visarjan when 78 such
installations were pulled down.

Following this, on September 16, post the seventh day visarjan,
245 illegal banners were removed. After the tenth day Visarjan which saw
many large mandals carry out idol immersion, on September 19, 1,044
illegal banners, posters and hoardings were removed. The next day, an
additional 648 signages were brought down.

In March, the Bombay High Court had said it would hold the
municipal commissioners as ‘co-conspirators’ responsible for putting up
illegal hoardings and asked the BMC and other civic bodies in Navi
Mumbai, Thane, Mira-Bhayander and Pune to remove all illegal posters,
banners, billboards and hoardings within 24 hours. olitical parties in
the corporation subsequently took a collective decision to end the
practice for public canvassing.