HC lauds BMC's efforts in drive against illegal hoardings

Pleased with the progress made by the civic authority in the removal of hoardings the Bombay High Court on Friday suggested that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation rope in school children and NGOs to assist it in the drive Earlier on Wednesday the Court had ordered the civic body to remove all illegal banners in 24 hours The division bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and AP Bhangale were hearing a bunch of PILs complaining about inconveniences caused by illegal hoardings ldquoWe appreciate the undying efforts of various municipal councils to remove illegal posters hoardings and banners within the time period givenrdquo the bench said The court also appreciated the efforts put in by various media channels in ldquocreating awarenessrdquo and pointed out that some credit should be given to them In its order the court noted that the drive should continue ldquoAll action will be taken and completed by the next date which is April 25rdquo Justice Khanwilkar also recommended formation of bodies similar to Mohalla committees to assist in the drive and an official policy under the Urban Development Department for taking care of illegal hoardings ldquoThe effort has to continue this is not the end of the road They the corporations are working overnightrdquo he said ldquoSustained pressure must continue Involve NGOs schoolchildren to work on this issue So many resources are available to you in civil society Follow the structure of Satara Make it suitable for us This time we will give you as much time as you want to remove hoardings but the effort has to be sustainedrdquo the court added Quelling concerns that lsquolegalrsquo hoardings would also be inadvertently removed the court has directed persons aggrieved by such removals to make the necessary applications before the local civil court for restitution provided that they took proper permissions to put up their hoardings ldquoThere is no need to bring up such individual grievances before the High Court A remedy is available to you before the civil courtrdquo Finally the court also pointed out that it was not only the duty of civic authorities to ensure hoardings were taken down but also that of the police The court has now adjourned the matter giving the various corporations adequate time to remove all illegal hoardings It took us years to remove hoardings Satara municipal CEO Mumbaikars have only one person to thank for the cityrsquos spotless look after it gets rid of illegal hoardings Abhijit Bapat Satara Municipal Councilrsquos CEO set an example under the supervision of the Bombay High Court by making the city of Satara free of illegal hoardings in record time Speaking to MiD DAY Bapat implies the sailing is smooth once political will is taken care of How did you manage to clear all illegal banners posters and hoardings in one week The Bombay High Court regularly monitored our progress and we submitted our compliance report as per schedule We have been taking action against illegal hoardings for the last one year Have you implemented any policy for the removal of hoardings As per the judgment of the Aurangabad bench of the High Court we have implemented a nodal agency to deal with permissions for hoardings We have municipal officers who go on regular checks to ensure no banners other than authorised ones are being put up How many hoardings have been taken care of under the policy So far we have removed about 700 hoardings and taken action against 109 people who were responsible for putting up illegal hoardings Though we faced opposition in some individual cases by far most political parties were very cooperative Even the District Collector supported our initiative Setting an example Aurangabad In 2010 a local resident 23yearold Sunil Jadhav approached the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court complaining about the hoardings in the cityrsquos square Kranti Chowk On June 10 2010 the division bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and SS Shinde had directed the commissioner of the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation and the collector to form a lsquonodal authorityrsquo for granting lsquoconsolidated permissionrsquo to display posters banners and hoardings on boards The court had said ldquoWe see no difficulty as to why the different authorities responsible to remove the illegal posters cannot consider constituting one nodal agency to take steps for effective implementation of the scheme to remove them throughout the cityrdquo The judgment stated that until the formation of such a nodal authority the primary responsibility remained with the local corporation as well as the state government On Friday the court took a page out of its own judgment and suggested that a similar agency be formed for Mumbai which would take care of permissions for hoardings and their removal Hoardings removed BMC 5065 MBMC 1204 TMC 1901