BMP double-speak on hoardings

BMP double-speak on hoardings
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Thousands of hoardings in the City continue to violate norms and are a strain on the nerves. Commissioner of Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) told the council that he would remove the illegal hoardings.

Mayor Mumtaz Begum ruled that no unauthorised display should be allowed to continue. Both decisions are lost on a lethargic BMP machinery.

Interestingly, Commissioner K Jairaj had stopped renewal of licences after the hoarding permits expired on June 30. That means that all hoardings except the ones with stay orders must be removed.

In the meantime, a proposal to revise the advertisement rules is pending with the Government and BMP Special Commissioner Gaurav Gupta is confident that new rules will come into immediate effect, so that the civic body will be spared the ‘embarrassment’ of having to pull down the hoardings.

Even after two months, new rules are yet to be brought into force and the hoardings continue to be illegal and even new hoardings are coming up.

Begum did two rounds of inspection and pointed out hoardings that are illegal. Leaders from Opposition parties, too, brought specific cases of violations but BMP officials ignored them.

These officials have ignored blatant violations by roadside hoardings and it would not be too difficult for them to ignore an official order.

Negligence by BMP officials renders all the efforts of the Mayor and the Commissioner futile.

Begum had constituted a sub-committee comprising leaders of all parties in the council and the committee took three months to arrive at a consensus that all illegal hoardings must be removed.

Interestingly, Commissioner K Jairaj also moved a note saying exactly the same. In June, both decisions were accepted by the council and two separate resolutions were adopted - as if council approval was necessary to follow the rule book. Nothing has changed ever since.