Patna, Dec. 18: Several outdoor advertising agencies erected billboards allegedly in connivance with lower-rung civic body officials, without paying requisite fee to Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC). The civic body’s ongoing drive against illegal hoardings in the city revealed this.
Officials said few such cases emerged yesterday.
“A hoarding was installed on bamboo poles near Maurya hotel on Frazer Road. When we were pulling it down, workers of an ad agency protested our move, claiming that they had permission from PMC. When we asked for the documents, they showed us a money receipt of Rs 8,000 without signature of any official. We later found an assistant of a senior official issued a fake permit to them,” said a senior PMC official.
Avinash Singh, the executive engineer of New Capital circle of PMC, said it could be the tip of an iceberg.
“A number of cases are surfacing that hint at the nexus between PMC employees and agency owners. It cannot be denied that all this might have led to huge losses to the corporation,” he said.
The civic body pulled down at least 70 unauthorised hoardings from Dakbungalow crossing and Frazer Road today. PMC commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pal and mayor Afzal Imam supervised the drive with officials from the corporation.
Police personnel and officials of the district administration accompanied them.
“A survey team is accompanying us in the drive. We are pulling down every hoarding that does not have registration and permit number — be it private or government billboards. We are also removing the billboards whose registration has not been renewed because of non-payment of the requisite fee,” said Singh.
On December 4, the civic body had issued seven-day ultimatum to outdoor advertisement agencies, asking them to pay the dues. Else, it had threatened to remove the hoardings. None of the agencies, however, complied with the orders.
Sources in the corporation said PMC’s own report on revenue collection shows not a penny had been earned from outdoor ad agencies in the past two years.
PMC officials claimed that it was irregularity on the part of the advertisement agencies.
Therefore, the civic body had been planning a crackdown on errant agencies.
