E-Paper
KMC takes legalisation road to earning
CAUGHT IN Catch-22 situation whether to legalise hoardings already installed in the city, or to come out with a new policy for advertisers following High Court directives, the Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC) officials have decided to go with the former and legalise them.
CAUGHT IN Catch-22 situation whether to legalise hoardings already installed in the city, or to come out with a new policy for advertisers following High Court directives, the Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC) officials have decided to go with the former and legalise them.
KMC officials have, thus, started taking the contract amount for the current fiscal from advertisers who have already put up hoardings in the city.
Virtually all hoardings installed in the city were illegal as the Allahabad High Court passed an order directing corporations to ensure that traffic movement was not hindered because of hoardings. The court, according to a senior official of the KMC, had also talked about an advertisement policy.
Call it apathy of KMC officials or anything else that even after eight months of the current fiscal and passing of the High Court order, no heed has been paid towards either.
The result was that the KMC advertisement section citing reasons of complying with the High Court order, did not take any contract amount from the advertisers.
Thus, the hoardings already put up in the city for the last few years in the city remained illegal amidst claims by KMC officials that illegal hoardings were being removed.
However, waking up after over 8 months to legalise the hoardings as a face-saving move, and probably to strengthen the financial condition of the cash-starved municipal corporation, the KMC decided to take the contract amount from over a dozen advertisers who had already put up hoardings in the city.
The KMC earns an estimated Rs 1 crore through hoardings in the city. An official of the KMC also said if the new policy comes into existence, the earning of the KMC through advertisement would touch nothing less than Rs 2.5 to Rs 3 crore.
The fact was even admitted by advertisement section incharge RC Srivastava. He, however, said no new sanctions have been given and the contract amount was being taken only from those advertisers whose hoardings were already on display.
About the new policy for the advertisers, Srivastava said that the policy was being drafted and it was expected that it would take shape in a week’s time. He categorically stated that fresh sanctions would be given for installing hoarding only after new policy comes into affect.
