The Indian Express 23.08.2012
All hoardings in city are illegal: PMC
‘Civic body can’t renew licences as none meets new norms’
The civic administration, indicating that all hoardings in the
city are illegal, on Wednesday said that their licences cannot be
renewed as they do not meet the norms prescribed under the new policy.
“The Pune Municipal Corporation’s hoarding policy is pending with
the state government for final approval. We cannot give permission for
hoardings as per the previous norms when the new policy is all set to
come into effect,” said Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Pathak. The issue
was raised by corporators in the civic general body meeting.
When corporators raised the issue of losses incurred due to
non-renewal of licences, Pathak said, “There are at least 16 norms for
hoardings. None of the hoardings fulfil the criteria, and can’t be
issued licences.”
The civic chief said there has been a constant demand for renewal
of licences for hoardings. “The PMC found that under the new policy,
the revenue was six times higher. In this situation, allowing hoardings
as per old policy will result in a huge loss to the PMC,” he added. The
civic administration has also initiated action against illegal
hoardings, but some have managed to obtain a stay, he said.
Corporators led by Congress leader Avinash Bagawe said the PMC
should also make the civic staff responsible for the losses due to
failure to take action.
The civic administration also informed the general body that the
number of illegal hawkers in the city was almost the same as licensed
ones. “The total number of hawkers in the city is 14,000, of which 7,224
are authorised,” said Ramesh Shelar, in charge of anti-encroachment
department of PMC.
Corporators condemned the civic administration for failing to keep a
check on the illegal hawkers and highlighted the issue of increasing
crime rate due to illegal hawkers in Tulshibaug area.
Shelar said Tulshibaug area has 289 authorised hawkers operating every day but the number of illegal hawkers is barely 10.
“The civic administration plans to rehabilitate the authorised
hawkers. Space for rehabilitation is available in the merged villages,”
he said.
Proposal to get Gandhi, Phule titles registered
CITING lack of official records, the general body of the PMC on
Wednesday approved a proposal for registration of titles ‘Rashtrapita’
for Mahatma Gandhi and ‘Mahatma’ for social reformer Jyotiba Phule. The
resolution will now be forwarded to the state governemnt . It was tabled
by NCP leader Ravindra Malvadkar, BJP corporator Dhananjay Jadhav and
NCP leader Anil Tingre.
