The Tribune: Kuldeep Bhatia: Ludhiana: Sunday, December 03, 2017.
In closing their eyes to illegal advertisements boards/hoardings on rooftops of the buildings all along Ferozepur Road from the erstwhile Octroi Post to Ayali Chowk (outside city limits), the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) officials are flouting the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court regarding putting up advertisement boards and hoardings on the state/national highways. Interestingly, whenever a complaint is lodged with GLADA, the flex film pasted on metal structures is temporarily removed and after sometime, the advertisements reappear, which gives credence to the allegations of officials patronage to this illegal activity.
In a complaint lodged with the Chief Administrator, Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) and the Additional Chief Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, Punjab, Council of RTI Activists President Rohit Sabharwal said more than a dozen huge hoardings were put up on rooftop structures of several buildings on both sides of the Ferozepur Road (NH 95) within a distance of less than a kilometre from GLADA/PUDA office in gross violation of the HC directions on putting up hoardings and advertisement boards along the highways.
Citing HC interim orders made on April 29, 2015, in disposal of COCP 2695/2012, Sabharwal said the court had taken on record an affidavit filed by the then Additional Chief Administrator of Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), which stated that illegal metal structures (for hoardings) on NH 21, NH 95 (Kharar to Ludhiana), NH 64, NH 1 and other scheduled roads falling in the jurisdiction of GMADA had been removed.
“Logically, GLADA authorities should have followed suit and metal structures as well as hoarding on NH 95 from Ludhiana to Ferozepur should have been removed in pursuance of the HC orders,” Sabharwal said while pointing out that no such action was taken by GLADA, which indicated that certain officials/ employees of the body were hand in glove with the advertisers and outdoor advertising agencies.
Seeking immediate intervention of the government and PUDA authorities, the complaint called for directions to the GLADA officials to take action on the hoardings/advertising boards and remove metal structures on the rooftops of the buildings so that flex sheets were not put up again on these structures.
GLADA officials, however, maintained that building control and other regulatory measures within 30 metres of the national/state highways were within the purview of the Public Works Department (PWD). “If any complaint about illegal hoardings or metal structures is received, we shall take up the matter with the PWD officials, who are the competent authority to act in this regard,” said an official.
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