The Times of India  18.11.2010

PCMC, police action against illegal hoardings from Friday

PUNE: The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and police will launch a joint drive against illegal flex boards, banners, flags and posters from Friday. Criminal cases will be filed against those who oppose the drive.

Additional commissioner Prakash Kadam said, "People have been given two days to remove them voluntarily." He said they had sought help from the police as a similar drive a few days ago was met with resistance.

Kadam said, "The zonal officers will lodge criminal cases against people opposing the drive under sections 244 and 255 of Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation (BPMC) Act 1949 and provisions of the Defacement of Public Properties Act."

A fine of Rs 500 will be collected from people for putting up illegal hoardings. People will also have to pay Rs 2,500 for every illegal hoarding as charges for removing them. Kadam said, " The civic body will provide a camera to each of the four zones to record the removal to provide evidence."

The civic body will organise a meeting of people to create awareness that they should verify whether the hoardings were being put up at authorised places identified by the civic body.

He said, "We will also give a list of authorised advertisement boards and hoardings to the police as well as civic squads. We will instruct contractors to display the codes given by the PCMC to prove that their advertisement boards are authorised."

The PCMC's drive against hoardings between April and November 14, 2010 yielded a fine of Rs 11,000.