Message unclear: BMP hoardings hide facts

Message unclear: BMP hoardings hide facts
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: For the last six months, information from the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) hoardings department has been full of contradictions.

This has been costing the cash-strapped BMP crores in revenue. The civic body even had to face a Lokayukta inquiry three years ago. According to the latest data posted on the BMP website, the bustling Gandhinagar area has merely 31 hoardings.

A cursory count, however, shows the number exceeds the figure by more three times. It’s the same story elsewhere in the city with the civic body reporting just 27 hoardings in Jayanagar, 13 in Basavanagudi, 2 in Chamarajpet, 12 in Malleswaram and just 1 in Chickpet.

To make the data look huge, the BMP has put the data two or three times in the ward lists. Last year, the then Mayor R Narayanaswami had pulled up officials for their laxity in pulling down unauthorised hoardings.

But all in vain.

Even the present Mayor Mumtaz Begum had boasted of taking action against the illegal hoardings but merely in two months time she seems to have forgotten her words. In her Shivajinagar ward, the BMP records only 31 hoardings.

Interestingly, the BMP says it has not allowed any hoardings in 33 wards, which include commercial hubs like K R Market, Mathikere, Basaveswaranagar, Cottonpet and Yeshwantpur.

BMP Additional Commissioner Gaurav Gupta told this website’s newspaper that he would verify the data. He said no new permits could have been given during the last six months as the advertisement rules were under revision.

However, he was noncommittal on the incorrect information on such a revenue intensive subject.