E-Paper
Pune: Despite fines, illegal flexes here, there and everywhere
Despite the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) having recovered nearly ₹17 lakh in fines this year for illegal political and commercial flex boards, banners and hoardings, as many as 1,956 illegal banners and hoardings continue to remain untouched, much to the displeasure of citizens
Despite the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) having recovered nearly ₹17 lakh in fines this year for illegal political and commercial flex boards, banners and hoardings, as many as 1,956 illegal banners and hoardings continue to remain untouched, much to the displeasure of citizens.
Sudhir Mehta, a Pune-based industrialist who has created a forum for citizens troubled by illegal hoardings and banners, said, “The administration has started taking action but the problem is critical. More than 2 lakh such boards have been removed in the past six months but they re-emerge regularly. We, the citizens, are approaching political parties to form a consensus and stop this illegal activity as elections are approaching. These hoardings go into landfills and worsen the problem. If we want a clean city, we should not endorse them. It is illegal but there are not many staff members in the PMC to enforce the rules.”
While the PMC has been actively involved in the removal of illegal boards ever since the decision of the Bombay high court, inefficiency has creeped in due to the shortage of manpower and citizens continue to remain dissatisfied. “Dedicated staff for identifying the wrongdoers, filing FIRs against them, and imposing fines may not be entirely present in the corporation. People can use other means such as social media to advertise to cut down on the usage of boards,” Mehta said.
According to civic officials, the PMC deals with at least 10 to 15 illegal banners and hoardings every day, which includes unauthorised flex boards and unpaid hoardings. The fine for an illegal hoarding is ₹50,000 while that for smaller banners and boards ranges from ₹1,000 to ₹5,000. Whereas an authorised board or hoarding costs an advertiser ₹222 per square foot as per the 2009 policy on hoardings.
Madhav Jagtap, deputy commissioner (license and sky signs), PMC, said, “Most of the hoardings are from political parties. They keep coming up again and again so we have to simply continue to take strict action against them. For two to three months, we have been increasing the identification of these unauthorised boards. Advertisers must pay their fees as soon as possible to establish these boards which is not happening.”
While the PMC claims that the number of such hoardings has reduced and that they are no longer present in several areas of the city, citizens and activists beg to differ. Qaneez Sukhrani, an activist based out of Viman nagar, said, “The numbers given in the compliance reports about the boards are not verifiable. We get the headcount of flex boards and banners in a few thousands, but we spot many more of these. A case must be filed under the MPDP act against the advertiser and the money too must be recovered. A new batch of boards crops up every few days. The force employed for this is put together using public money and our funds are lost. Hence, a third-party agency must be employed to conduct an investigation into this
