The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Monday told the Karnataka High Court that 212 more metal structures put up illegally for displaying advertisements have been removed voluntarily by the owners of such structures in addition to 107 that were removed voluntarily earlier.
A submission in this regard was made before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice R. Devdas, which is monitoring actions of the civic body in removing all illegal banners, hoardings and flexes through three PIL petitions.
“The law must reach them,” the bench observed when the BBMP counsel said that action as per law is being initiated against the owners of the around 1,600 such structures who have neither responded to the BBMP’s public notices for submitting documents to establish that structures were put up legally nor have removed the structures.
The counsel told the bench that the BBMP will file applications before the respective civil courts with requests to advance the hearing on the suits filed by certain advertisement agencies who had questioned the BBMP action of cancelling or not renewing licences for hoardings. Several such suits are pending before the civil courts since 2008.
By-law
The BBMP counsel said that the draft advertisement by-law would soon be put in the public domain seeking suggestions and objections from the public and other stake-holders as per provisions of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act. The government, which had received the BBMP’s draft by-laws, had advised the civic body to submit the draft by-laws for approval after securing views of the public as per the law.