JOIN USPost-PIL, Palike takes its job to clear illegal hoardings seriously
The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has got into an action mode after a resident moved High Court of Karnataka over the sprouting of illegal hoardings in the City and the local body’s inaction.
The Palike has started a drive to clear illegal advertisements across eight zones.
The drive is aimed specially against the illegal pole kiosks dotting the City. Special Commissioner (Welfare/Advertisements) V Rashmi said that most of the kiosks are put up on the electric lamp poles and that the private agencies have not paid advertisement tax to Palike due to which civic agency is incurring heavy losses.
“A total of 236 pole kiosks displaying promotional activities and advertisements were cleared during the drive held on December 25. In Bommanahalli Zone alone, 45 kiosks were cleared on Friday. Likewise, 41 illegal kiosks were removed in East Zone, 39 in West, 40 in South, 38 in Yelahanka and 33 kiosks in Mahadevapura,” she said.
Special Commissioner Rashmi said that the drive will be continued till the illegal kiosks in the City are cleared. In the next phase, the drive will be taken up on Raja Ram Mohan Roy Road.
BBMP officials said that during an inspection at Bommanahalli Zone, they noticed kiosks all along the stretch from JD Mara, Bannerghatta Road till Meenakashi Mahal Road. Movva Associates, that had put up the hoardings on the aforementioned stretch, has been slapped with a fine of Rs five lakh for violating Sections 134, 135, 136 and 137 of Karnataka Municipal Corporations (KMC) Act, officials added.
Citizens in ‘spotfixing’
Members of The Ugly Indian (TUI), joined by a group of residents of Marthahalli, took part in the spotfix activity on Saturday wherein they cleared the illegal posters adorning the skywalk on Varthur Road in Marathahalli. They also cleared the debris and removed the stains on the structure. They applied the TUI poster-killer design to deter posters.
“This is a brand new skywalk that is already been defaced by illegal posters. Project Under Fly Over (UFO) has reclaimed 15 flyovers and over 200 pillars have been poster-free for over two months now,” the TUI team. The volunteers, along with citizen groups from Kalyan Nagar, also cleaned up a flyover in the area under the UFO project.