A senior Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official has said that BMC commissioner Sitaram Kunte is currently planning a new set of rules to deal with the problem of illegal hoardings. The BMC has failed to generate revenue that could easily run into several crores as it has been unable to prosecute and collect fines from political parties for putting up illegal banners, boards and posters. On the other hand, the civic body has spent lakhs of public money in pulling them down. Statistics procured by the advertisement department within BMC’s licence department revealed that 1,88,736 banners, 1,38,557 boards 53,475 posters were illegally put up by political parties since 2009 till September 24, 2013. Incidentally, decades ago, the BMC had put a ban on posters. A senior BMC official requesting anonymity said, “We book all the owners of these illegal banners and boards under Section 471 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act 1888, where the court collects fine ranging from '1,000 up to '5,000. But, for example, if an illegal banner or a poster has a photo of Sharad Pawar, it does not mean he is the owner or the one who has put up the banner.” The official further added, “In many such cases, it’s difficult to find the owner and book him under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act 1888. So, we just pull them down or book them under Section 3 of the Maharashtra Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1995 and ask the police to register an FIR.” Even though the BMC has made over a crore by fining 55,236 illegal banners, boards and posters put up by commercial organisations between 2009 and September 2013, they have failed miserably to collect fines from 4,33,878 illegal banners, boards and posters during the same period. A minimum fine, which is '1,000 would have resulted in fine collection of '43.38 crore, while a maximum fine of '5,000 would run into over a billion rupees. Political parties are also given undue favour with respect to fees. While '50 is charged to political parties per square metre, '150 is charged from commercial organisations for the same. As a result, the deterrent effect is clearly seen in case of illegal commercial banners, boards and banners, which have come down from 24,664 in 2009 to 1,147 in 2012. While in the same period this number for political parties came down from 1.39 lakh to 48,139 in 2012.
