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.