Drive against illegal hoardings should sustain, says HC

Calling for the municipal corporations' drive against illegal hoardings to be sustained, the Bombay High Court today said awareness needs to be created among political leaders.
The high court had on March 13 directed the municipal corporations of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Mira Bhayandar and Thane to remove all illegal hoardings, posters and banners within 24 hours.
The corporations today informed a division bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and A P Bhangale that it had removed almost all the illegal hoardings till last night and the remaining ones would be removed within a couple of days.
"We appreciate the efforts taken by the corporations. We hope this drive is sustained; all remedial action is taken, every single hoarding is removed and future mushrooming of illegal hoardings is prevented. It is finally a loss to the state exchequer," Justice Khanwilkar said.

Observing that awareness needs to be created, the court said, "Responsibility does not lie with the corporation alone, but also on the local police and local political leaders. The municipal commissioners should consider calling a meeting of all political leaders and counsel them."
The court was informed that in Mumbai 5,065 illegal hoardings were removed and in Mira Bhayandar 1,204 hoardings were removed till last night.

The court also suggested the corporations to constitute a nodal agency comprising NGOs and members of the civil society to help the civic body in tackling the problem.
The matter has now been posted for further compliance on April 25.

The court had taken suo moto congnisance of the matter after perusing a compliance report submitted by the chief of Satara Municipal Corporation indicating that they had removed all unauthorised hoardings in Satara within a week.