Several Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) corporators on Thursday demanded that Hyderabad be made a hoarding-free city like Chennai. The corporators alleged that several irregularities were taking place in allotment of hoardings, lease period and collection of advertising fees.
Raising the issue of unauthorised hoardings and irregularities in hoardings, unipoles, gantries and cantilevers during the GHMC 9th ordinary meeting on Thursday, former deputy mayor Jaffer Hussain said that as per official records, only 2,600 hoardings existed in the city whereas there were over 5,000. He said several agencies, including Nest which owes the corporation Rs 17 crore, have to pay crores of rupees, but no concrete steps were taken to collect the fee.
Congress GHMC floor leader Kaleru Venkatesh said some advertising agencies were cheating the corporation by erecting unauthorised hoardings and resorting to unethical practices. "The corporation has been getting about Rs 15 crore per year. Hyderabad should be made a hoarding-free city without compromising for meagre revenue," Venkatesh said.
GHMC additional commissioner K Dhananjaya Reddy said about 416 unauthorised hoardings were already removed and they were not renewing permission for existing lollipop boards on central medians on stretches like the Nampally-Assembly road, Road No. 36, Jubilee Hills.
Mayor Mohd Majid Hussain directed GHMC commissioner MT Krishna Babu to submit a report on issues pertaining to advertising boards to the standing committee to take a decision on it.
Some corporators raised the issue of non-functional streetlights and lamented that citizens were facing problems in colonies during nights.
Patancheru corporator M Sapana Dev said electrical fittings were not being procured and allotted to wards for months together despite the officials being aware of the problems existing in almost all municipal divisions. Lack of proper streetlights in several areas is leading to rise in crime," he said. Hafeezpet corproator V Jagadishwar Goud said the corporation was denying provision of basic amenities like streetlights, roads and other facilities to colonies like Gokul plots and Adityanagar, Subashnagar, Krishna Nagar (survey number 80) of Hafeezpet on the pretext that they are on disputed land.
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