Illegal hoardings rampant in city

Illegal hoardings rampant in city
Vijay TImes

EVEN as the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) awaits governments nod to the draft advertisement bye-laws, political leaders and their followers seem to be throwing rules and norms to the wind.

Exuberant party cadres, in a bid to impress their leaders, have been putting up banners and cut-outs of their netas in the City indiscriminately without securing permission.

For instance, some of those who wanted to wish senior Congress leader M Mallikarjuna Kharge on his 65th birthday have put up banners all over the City.

It may be recalled that after taking over as Chief Minister of Karnataka, H D Kumaraswamy had told his followers not to put up posters, cut-outs , banners and other materials praising him as it would spoil the beauty of this Garden City. However, they did not heed to his words and went ahead and painted the City red on that occasion.

Banners and cut-outs of political bigwigs, religious seers and local leaders being displayed is not new to the public.

But what has hurt them is the fact that neither the people seeking publicity nor the ones helping them in the process have a sense of commitment towards protecting the beauty and aesthetics of the City.

While these issues have been debated time and again, are the civic authorities ignoran about it? "We are definitely aware of such banners and posters being displayed. The BMP is taking stringent action against advertisement companies and others too for putting up unauthorised hoardings and publicity materials in violation of the advertisement bye-laws," says BMP Commissioner K Jairaj.

The Commissioner said that he had directed the officials concerned to send an official letter to all political parties and the associations concerned, asking them to adhere to rules under the advertisement bye-laws of the BMP and accordingly obtain permission from the BMP and pay advertisement fee.

When BBVVTT sought to know if the associations and individuals concerned, who had put up such publicity materials had availed permission from the BMP, senior officials in the BMP Advertisement Department admitted that no permission had been sought from them.

According to the advertisement rules, those seeking to put up banners and cut-outs under the BMP limits should apply for permission to the BMP Advertisement Department and pay a prescribed fee of Rs 57.50 per sq.mtr for a period of 30 days.

"Based on the Commissioners directions, we will take up a drive to get such unauthorised cutouts and banners removed," the officials said.

UUn naauutth hoorriis seedd h hooaarrddiin nggs s ttoo ggoo bby y AAuugg 1 1 Following the resolution passed in the BMP Council with regard to removal of unauthorised hoardings, the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) has taken up a drive to pull down all unauthorised commercial hoardings in the City.

"Following the expiry of the permission, granted to display commercial hoardings, on June 30, we have extended the permission to authorised hoardings till such time the new bye-laws are implemented. Once the new bye-laws are in place, advertisers have to get the specifications of the hoardings (like height, width, distance) altered. If they fail to do so, we will pull down such hoardings and cancel their permission," Jairaj explained.

"We will complete the exercise of removing unauthorised hoardings which are in violation of the advertisement bye-laws by the month end. We are hopeful that the government will approve the draft bye-laws by then," he said.

Draft advertisement bye-laws are aimed at streamlining all the processes pertaining to displaying hoardings in the City.

"Meanwhile, we have prepared a zone-wise list of all such hoardings on which advertisement companies have obtained a stay from the Court. We will move the High Court and get the stay vacated in all these cases," the Commissioner said.

"In the new draft bye-laws, weve identified the core areas which will be free of hoardings. In order to regulate the location and display advertisement hoardings in the City, the sai areas will be classified into four zones - A, B, C and D and no hoardings will be allowed within the prescribed set back of residential, commercial, semi-commercial properties," Jairaj informed.



nZONE A — no hoarding shall be permitted

nZONE B — the size of a hoarding shall not exceed 24 ft x 12 ft when erected on ground and 30 ft x 15 ft when erected on a roof top. The height shall not exceed 40 feet from the ground.

nZONE C — the size of a hoarding shall not exceed 40 ft x 20 ft. The height shall not exceed 50 feet from the ground.

nZONE D — the size of the hoardings shall not exceed 40 ft x 20 ft, and no height restrictions shall apply.

nThe minimum distance between two hoardings shall be one metre in all zones.