The Bombay High Court has directed municipal corporations, on Friday to immediately carry out a special drive in order to remove illegal hoardings in the state after they took a note of complaints about a large number of illegal hoardings that were put up during the Ganesh festival.
The drive is to be carried out till October 15 and later prevent the same problem during the festival of Navratri.
A Bench comprising Justices A S Oka and A Menon were hearing two PILs, that had alleged the political parties, in total disregard to the rules and laws, had put up various illegal hoardings and banners all over the state.
Advocate Warunjakar, appearing for the Sushama Swaraj Foundation, an NGO, and one of the petitioners, pointed out the large scale violations that happened during the Ganesh festival when hoardings and advertisements were put up on the pandals without taking any requisite permission.
Bombay High Court
The court has also inquired when Navratri was scheduled to begin and was informed that it would be on the second week of October. The bench had earlier referred to a High Court order where it had specified that the separate permission was required for displaying hoardings, banners, etc, on pandals, besides the permission required from the corporations for further building pandals, and also directed the civic bodies to implement it.
“The municipal corporations shall issue orders to further prevent the illegal display of ads, hoardings, etc, on pandals or its vicinity in order to celebrate religious festivals. We direct the corporations to conduct a special drive which is supposed to remove illegal hoardings, which shall commence immediately and be carried out till October 15. In case there is any obstruction by any political party, the corporations can move to the court and give the names of the party or its workers,” said Justice Oka.
The court had earlier also directed political parties to set up a grievance redressal mechanism to prevent such activities. “The political parties should also inform us if they have set up such a mechanism and provide us with necessary particulars of action taken by in this regard,” said the court.
