Officials at the PMC meet in Patna on Wednesday. Telegraph picture

Patna, Jan. 4: Traders can have a signboard outside their shops free of cost. They would be charged for additional advertisement boards, though.

Giving relief to the business fraternity, municipal commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pal today made this announcement in a meeting with members of Bihar Chamber Commerce (BCC) and representatives of traders. Patna divisional commissioner K.P. Ramaiah also participated in the meet.

Businessmen and traders had turned up in large numbers in the meeting demanding that Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) should not charge for signboards outside shops as they are put up with informative purpose and not with the intent to advertise the products available in shops.

Interacting with them, Pal said the shopkeepers having only one display board outside their shops would not have to get their signboard registered or pay fee to the civic body. But those having more than one advertisement board would have to get the registration done after submitting a self-assessment form. The corporation employees would conduct an inspection to check if they were merely signboards or advertisement boards.

Pal assured the traders of not taking any coercive action against the business establishments for a month. By then, all shopkeepers and offices would have to register their display boards with a special cell constituted in the civic body.

Representatives of some of the advertisement agencies present in the meeting registered their protest against the PMC’s ongoing drive against unauthorised billboards, saying that the exercise was started without any warning.

The PMC commissioner said the crackdown started after several notices to the defaulters to pay the requisite fee to the civic body yielded no results.

Pal announced in the meeting that Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs) would be formed in all the 72 wards of the corporation to get feedback and suggestions from residents.

O.P. Shah, the president of BCC, suggested the PMC authorities to introduce waste disposal points in the city with proper signage. He said contact numbers of employees concerned should also be on display in public places.