Mayor ordered hoarding removal, BJP told

The announcement led to an uproar during the meeting as the BJP members claimed hoardings “highlighted how the Sheila Dikshit government was misrepresenting facts”.

The party members also alleged that Dikshit and the state administration had “forced the MCD and the DTC staff” to remove these hoardings.

Mehra, however, claimed the hoardings were removed as per procedure, following consultations with the legal adviser of the MCD. Mehra also told the House that Mayor Prithvi Raj Sawhney had recently sent him a letter directing all unauthorised hoardings must be removed. Hence, the Corporation staff had implemented the same, he added.

Mehra also said copies of a letter containing details of the hoardings that were removed were sent to the Mayor and the Standing Committee chairperson.

While the Mayor is in China at present, Deputy Mayor Rajesh Gehlot and Standing Committee chairperson Yogender Chandolia rejected the Commissioner’s claims.

Chandolia said the Mayor had written to the Commissioner asking him to remove the hoardings that were unauthorised, made personal attacks or were put up at unauthorised sites. The hoardings in question, however, had remarks against the state administration and did not attack the CM personally.

Besides, the BJP members claimed, the hoardings were “spreading general awareness on issues concerning the public”. 

“The letter written by the Mayor was a general one about unauthorised hoardings, but the hoardings in question were completely legal, as the party had gone through the proper channels to pay for the authorised advertising sites,” Chandolia added.

Leadr of MCD House Subhash Arya also alleged there had been no written order by any authority to pull down these hoardings. “The MCD had auctioned several sites after the Supreme Court’s permission. Our party used only those legal sites. Then why should the government pull down these hoardings?” he asked.

Chandolia said the BJP members will now take up the issue with the MCD Standing Committee. He added the Commissioner has further been directed to “ensure that the same is not repeated”.

The face-off began earlier last week when the Delhi government allegedly “removed” hoardings put up by the BJP against power tariff raise. The Chief Minister then slapped a legal notice on Vijender Gupta for “conspiring to malign her reputation and image”. Gupta in turn accused Dikshit of “using government machinery to get paid hoardings of the BJP removed from various locations across the city”.