Hordes of hoarding

Patna, June 28: Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) has once again failed to bring down illegal hoardings put up across the city within the stipulated timeframe.

In its meeting on June 13, the empowered standing committee of the PMC had directed the administrative officials of the civic body to bring down the unauthorised billboards within 10 days, but not a single hoarding has been removed, said sources.

The PMC board had first taken the decision in December last year to remove hundreds of billboards and hoardings put up across the city which are largely illegal and are not adding anything to the PMC’s revenue kitty. The civic body, however, has failed to bring the billboards down despite repeated resolutions to do so.

Sources in the corporation said PMC’s own report on revenue collection shows that not a penny has been earned through advertisement charges by outdoor ad agencies in the past two years. PMC officials claimed it is irregularity on the part of advertisement agencies and therefore the civic body had been planning a crackdown on defaulting agencies.

Mayor Afzal Imam accused officials for laxity on their part saying that they lacked willpower to carry out the crackdown. “We have repeatedly asked the officials to take action but nothing has happened. Recently, notices were served to agencies to bring down their billboards within a week or to deposit requisite fee. However, the deadline has expired and there has been no response from either side. In standing committee’s next meeting on Friday, we will discuss the matter again,” he said.

He added it was decided in the PMC board meeting in December last year that about 900 hoardings will be brought down. “However, the PMC administration could not take any action against agencies despite the fact that notices were issued to the defaulters many a times,” he said.

According to the records, there are 125 hoardings in the PMC area on government land and 676 of them are on private lands or buildings. There is no data of unauthorised billboards even as officials admit that there are hundreds of illegal hoardings in the PMC area.

PMC chief engineer Ramswarath Singh, meanwhile, said he had not received any orders to remove the illegal hoardings. “If we can remove the encroachment with the available manpower and machinery, we can remove unauthorised hoardings in phase-wise manner too. However, we have not been given any direction regarding that by top officials,” Singh said.

A source said: “Through audit in the PMC it has come to light that advertisement agencies in connivance with some of the PMC officials have caused huge losses — to the tune of Rs 2.14 crore — in the revenue to the PMC. A vigilance case is on in this regard,” a source said.