08 October,2011 06:43 AM IST | | Rinkita Gurav
BMC permits only 10 banners per political party in each of its wards
Citing the ongoing festival season and the upcoming civic body elections, politicians are continuing with their annoying trend of defacing the city by pasting ugly banners and hoardings at every possible nook and corner needless to say, illegally.
Shocking stats
According to BMC statistics, on October 1, permissions were acquired for just 10 commercial banners and a political board, at ward-level.
Hoardings put up by political parties are an
eyesore in Mulund and Bhandup
However, innumerable posters have been put up, wishing Mumbaikars for the bygone and the upcoming festivals.
Even Shiv Sena, the ruling party in the BMC, had pasted a chunk of banners, announcing its annual Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park, which concluded on Thursday.
While permissions for just 30 banners and 42 posters were issued between Oct 1 and Oct 7 across all the 24 wards, the civic officials have pulled down 1,739 illegal banners.
Superintendent
S Avhad said, "More than 50 per cent of all hoardings put up in the city are illegal. While about 90 per cent of these are political, the rest are either religious or educational.
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Besides work pressure, there is immense political pressure on us. The junior officers feel the heat when they step out to remove these unauthorised hoardings."
An official from BMC's licence department, requesting anonymity, said, "Hardly any permissions have been acquired by any of the political parties to install banners and posters.
On Thursday, Shiv Sena had put up numerous banners, informing citizens about the Dussehra rally. However, permission for not even 10 banners must have been taken."
Another official said, "This is a routine wherein political parties start putting up banners illegally during festivals and birthdays of their senior leaders.
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Since we don't know who has put up these unauthorised banners, we can't penalise anyone. The only option we have, is to pull down all the illegal ones."
When contacted, Standing Committee Chairman and Shiv Sena corporator, Rahul Shewale, said, "There are not only political banners, even commercial ones are being installed illegally.
They take permission for one or two, but put up several, especially in areas such as Lalbaug and Parel, which have mandals."
Commenting on the issue, a Shiv Sainik said, "Making posters and banners is an expensive proposition.
However, during a rally or on the occasion of a leader's birthday, we put them up to express our respect and love for them."
Rs 40
BMC's charge for the first sq mt of a banner, followed by Rs 25 for each subsequent unit
