15,000 hoardings taken down: BMC

With barely a week to go for Republic Day, figures released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) show that more than 15,000 unauthorised posters were removed during the entire last year. The civic body also launched prosecution in 1,430 such cases in 2015.

This follows a high court directive to civic bodies last year asking them to remove all illegal hoardings and banners by Republic Day,

Political hoardings continue to top the list of illegal hoardings removed by the BMC. Almost half of the posters and banners that were removed were political in nature, said civic officials.

According to the civic data, in the 12-month period from January to December last year, the BMC removed a total of 15,021 illegal hoardings, posters and banners. Of them, almost half of them were political, followed by religious hoardings. To curb the growing menace of illegal banners and posters in cities, the high court had warned of contempt action against the commissioners of civic bodies and councils of every district in the state, if they failed to remove illegal hoardings and banners by January 26.

The highest number of illegal hoardings (2,713) was removed in Dahisar (R/N ward), followed by Kurla (L ward) 1,167 and Dadar (G/North ward). The BMC has also lodged 127 first information reports and launched prosecution in 1,430 cases in its drive against illegal hoardings.

In case of illegal posters and banners, an FIR can be registered under Section 3 of the Prevention of Defacement of Public Property Act (1995). A person can be fined up to '2,000, or imprisoned for up to three months, or both, for putting up illegal banners.

Civic activists said the BMC needs to intensify its drive if the city is to be free of illegal hoardings. “The fact that the highest number of unauthorised banners is political in nature shows political parties have no regard for civic rules. The officials also turn a blind eye due to political pressure. Action should be taken against these politicians for contempt of court,” an activist said.