Times of India: Hyderabad: Saturday, 09 July 2022.
In the past nearly three years since the ban on illegal flexis/hoardings began to be enforced in the city, the GHMC has imposed Rs 120 crore fines on violators, including private companies and political parties. But the civic body has failed to make violators cough up the fine and so far has collected a paltry Rs 12 crore.
Apart from issuing notices asking to pay the pending fine, the civic body can revoke trade licence of defaulters and also seize their business - but that has not been done in a single case as of date. The unpaid fines over the years have come to pinch the GHMC as it is staring at a cash crunch now.
While the ban on flexis exists from way back in 1996 under GO No. 1163 in the entire state, it was only in October 2019 that guidelines and mechanism to enforce them were put in place. However, officials said that apart from difficulty in collecting fines they also find it hard to identify the person responsible as most banners do not have the details.
Officials said that over 2 lakh challans were issued since the 2019 ban, mostly against unauthorised commercial hoardings and some political ones.
A total of 66 printing agencies have been fined for both commercial and political hoardings. A significant number of challans were imposed against well-known printing agencies.
Among those who fined include printing firms Kalpana Digitals, Bright Digitals, Varna Ads and Mamatha Printers.
"We had conducted a drive during April and issued 1,321 challans against printing agencies. Out of which 83% were commercial hoardings, while the rest were political," an Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management (EV&DM) wing official said.
A recent reply from GHMC to an RTI application filed by city-based activist Robin Zaccheus revealed that TRS' biggest bill came during CM K Chandrasekhar Rao's birthday celebrations between February 16 and 17. A total 269 challans were generated against TRS leaders across the city, resulting in a penalty of around Rs 20 lakh.
"When I filed an RTI seeking the total number of challans issued to political parties, the GHMC replied stating that they did not maintain partywise data. This is obviously a protective decision by the civic body," Zaccheus said.
In the past nearly three years since the ban on illegal flexis/hoardings began to be enforced in the city, the GHMC has imposed Rs 120 crore fines on violators, including private companies and political parties. But the civic body has failed to make violators cough up the fine and so far has collected a paltry Rs 12 crore.
Apart from issuing notices asking to pay the pending fine, the civic body can revoke trade licence of defaulters and also seize their business - but that has not been done in a single case as of date. The unpaid fines over the years have come to pinch the GHMC as it is staring at a cash crunch now.
While the ban on flexis exists from way back in 1996 under GO No. 1163 in the entire state, it was only in October 2019 that guidelines and mechanism to enforce them were put in place. However, officials said that apart from difficulty in collecting fines they also find it hard to identify the person responsible as most banners do not have the details.
Officials said that over 2 lakh challans were issued since the 2019 ban, mostly against unauthorised commercial hoardings and some political ones.
A total of 66 printing agencies have been fined for both commercial and political hoardings. A significant number of challans were imposed against well-known printing agencies.
Among those who fined include printing firms Kalpana Digitals, Bright Digitals, Varna Ads and Mamatha Printers.
"We had conducted a drive during April and issued 1,321 challans against printing agencies. Out of which 83% were commercial hoardings, while the rest were political," an Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management (EV&DM) wing official said.
A recent reply from GHMC to an RTI application filed by city-based activist Robin Zaccheus revealed that TRS' biggest bill came during CM K Chandrasekhar Rao's birthday celebrations between February 16 and 17. A total 269 challans were generated against TRS leaders across the city, resulting in a penalty of around Rs 20 lakh.
"When I filed an RTI seeking the total number of challans issued to political parties, the GHMC replied stating that they did not maintain partywise data. This is obviously a protective decision by the civic body," Zaccheus said.
.JPG)
.JPG)
