Civic notices announcing the rules on advertisements. Picture by Nantu Dey

Raiganj, Oct. 24: The Raiganj Municipality is losing lakhs of rupees as revenue from local advertisements because it does not have the infrastructure to crack down on defaulters.

The civic body has admitted that it is unable to cope with the situation. Many hoardings and signboards have mushroomed on rooftops without taking the municipality ’s permission.

The vice-chairman of the municipality, Subrata Roy who is also in charge of the tax collection department, said under the Bengal Municipality Act, it was mandatory for all to take the permission of the civic body for erecting any hoarding or putting up any banner in the town.

“After the permission is granted, the advertisers have to pay Rs 50 per square foot for banner and Rs 200 per square foot for hoarding a year. They have to also renew the permission each year,” Roy said.

He said the area around the main market was swarming with advertisements. “We have granted permission in many cases, but unfortunately, we are being able to collect only 40 per cent of the revenue. There are also advertisements which have come up without our permission.”

According to Roy, the municipality has collected only Rs 8 lakh from advertisers in the past six months when the projected amount was close to Rs 30 lakh.

“It is also true that because of lack of infrastructure, we are unable to take action against the defaulters and those who have illegally put up hoardings,” he said.

The civic body cannot remove the hoardings as there is no place to store them till the disposal of the charges that may be brought against the offenders.

“If the offenders pay up the fine, we will have to return the hoardings without any damage and for that, we need to store them properly. We are now buildings a storeroom exclusively for this purpose,” Roy said.

He said once the storeroom was completed, all illegal hoardings would be removed and the offenders would be taken to task.

According to Bikash Chaki, who runs an advertisement agency, no one knew about the municipality’s procedures.

“We are not aware of the rates and the permission. We set up hoardings in the spots where the companies want to display them,” said Chaki.