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Residents wary of the increasing number hoardings in Hinjewadi
The hoardings that have sprung up along both sides of the Hinjewadi road in Wakad have raised concerns among residents and social activists after one such hoarding collapsed on March 22 at the Wipro Circle due to gusty winds
The hoardings that have sprung up along both sides of the Hinjewadi road in Wakad have raised concerns among residents and social activists after one such hoarding collapsed on March 22 at the Wipro Circle due to gusty winds.
Although no human causality occurred in the incident, one four-wheeler and two-wheeler were damaged. After the incident, many commuters have approached the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and the Hinjewadi gram panchayat.
Tanay Patekar, social activist who works with NGO Angolichi Goli said, “I have written about this issue to the Hinjewadi gram panchayat many times, yet no action has been taken on the illegal hoarding and even on cutting of trees. Wherever you will see hoardings, the tree in front of it is trimmed or cut. On both the issues, only panchnama is done and nothing after that.”
The complaints from residents of Wakad on PCMC smart sarthi app have always gone unattended.
“I have been raising these concerns on the helpline number many times but never got a response from PCMC. Hoardings keep on increasing every month, now the situation has gone worse as even in 100 metre space there are two hoardings,” said Tanuja Apte, Wakad resident.
Residents also claim that Hinjewadi police and gram panchayat are also not taking any prompt actions.
“I have been following up since November 2020 with the Hinjewadi police and gram panchayat but both of them have failed to take any action. During the last year, the number of hoardings were less and now it has doubled up from what it was,” said Patekar.
Tulshiram Raykar, village development officer, Hinjewadi gram panchyat said, “It is hard to say which of them are illegal and legal. We will do an inquiry and take the action.”
The hoardings which are legal have a license number plate above the hoarding, which is mandatory from the sky and license department, PCMC.
The spot visit from HT confirmed that most of the hoardings on the Hinjewadi road do not have a license number plate along with the hoardings.
“One can notice many empty hoardings as well which are more dangerous. I have observed that few hoardings are already tilted which should be removed completely. I remember in 2018, four people were killed, and several got injured due to an empty frame collapsing near Juna Bazaar. It was tragic, the administration should not take an increasing number of hoardings lightly,” said Aditi Shah, IT professional.
Mangesh Chitale, head of sky and license department and deputy commissioner, PCMC, said, “The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) is going to conduct a big drive on hoardings in the next 15 days. We have formed a team which will have one member each from the regional area, one from respective ward and one from the agency which we have hired for the demolition work.”
“The team will identify illegal and as well as legal hoardings and will put marking on them. Once the identification process is completed all the illegal hoardings will be demolished. In the last standing committee, our proposal has been given a green signal from the administration. The work will be starting soon,” added Chitale.
Pavanjit Mane, Maharashtra state president of Forum of IT Employees (FITE) said, “The hoardings which are there on the roads in the Hinjewadi IT park are too big which make it more dangerous. IT employees have complaints regarding the same and they fear while commuting on roads. The audit should be done to find out which are legal and illegal hoardings and guardian minister Ajit Pawar or Supriya Sule should look into this as it is a big issue. The gram panchayats and local administration alone are not capable of solving this problem.”
