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.
