Mumbai: Despite court order, political banners are here to stay

Political hoardings in the suburbs

Despite repeated hearings and direction from the High Court, the BMC is in no mood to remove political hoarding from public places. The Bombay High Court on Wednesday expressed strong distress over hoardings and banners put up on footpaths, trees, and street lights, and appealed to the general public not to encourage such illegal acts. But despite repeated complaints from the residents, the BMC is not willing to remove the political banners in Chandivli.

The court was hearing a contempt petition filed against authorities for non-compliance with court orders over the removal of illegal hoardings. During a hearing, the Bombay High Court said that illegal hoardings and banners cause ‘hazards' to pedestrians and other users of roads and no individual or a group, be it a political party or a commercial organisation, or any religious group, can be legally permitted to utilise public places such as footpaths, streetlights, roads and so on for their personal gains and advertisements. Chandivli residents have been experiencing it for a long time.

"We read that the BMC chief, Chahal, instructed all the ward offices to remove banners, but the reality is far different on the ground. We hope he takes a review of his instructions. There are big banners in Chandivli over the roads and footpaths blocking ways and the BMC officials turning blind eyes to political banners," said Kunal Yadav, a resident.

Yogesh Patil, another resident said, "There is a political hoarding across the road in Powai, near Hiranandani garden on a permanent structure. CCWA made several complaints to the BMC. The banner is still there for many months. If it is legal then the BMC officials should inform us, but they don't even bother to respond."
Mandeep Singh Makkar, founder of the Chandivli Citizens Welfare Association (CCWA) said, "On one hand, the CM announces that their government is deep cleaning and beautifying the city, on the other hand, his party MLAs are defacing the city by putting up multiple banners and hoardings at multiple locations even covering traffic signals at some locations."

The BMC informed the High Court that it had taken down a total of 10,839 political hoardings, 4,551 commercial hoardings, and 32,481 illegal hoardings; there isn't any information on how many are still on roads, blocking sights, footpaths, and roads.

Dilip Lande, local MLA said that there isn't any illegal hoarding of him or his party in the area. "We displayed one banner in Chandivli to inform citizens about the road work and apologised for the inconvenience due to the work. Apart from that there isn't any banner," said Lande. He further added, "The hoarding across the road has been displayed after taking permission from the BMC and the other one was displayed to wish the CM, but we will remove it immediately."

BMC official from L ward said that most illegal posters and hoardings have already been removed. There are a few about the ongoing civic work. If residents have complaints about the specific hoardings we will take a review.

10,839
No. of hoardings taken down