Mayor asks UDD to drop bylaw that may allow hoardings

Mayor Gowtham Kumar has asked the Urban Development Department (UDD) additional chief secretary (ACS) to drop the advertisement rules prepared by the department, and implement those prepared by the civic body.

In a letter to the ACS, the mayor said the advertisement bylaws 2006 were scrapped after finding several loopholes in it. The government approved the BBMP Outdoor Signage and Public Messaging Bye-Law in 2018, which is currently in effect, he wrote.

"The BBMP passed the resolution to ban hoardings. If any other advertisement rules come into effect, they will affect the visual beauty of the city and curb the constitutional rights of the BBMP, as no state government can interfere in local body’s decisions," he wrote.

"But recently the state government notified the BBMP Advertisement Rules-2019, which has given fresh hopes to advertisement agencies who have been attempting to make changes to the Karnataka Municipal Council (KMC) Act, in a bid to make a backdoor entry for installing hoardings," he wrote.

“As the BBMP has already included hoardings as ‘building’ in its building bylaws amendment, it is subject to approval by authorities, but there is no mention of BBMP’s powers in this matter, which will harm the administration of the Palike in this matter. Thus, no new rules of advertisements should be approved to protect the visual beauty of the city,” he wrote.