Civic body on a ‘frantic’ drive as HC moots action against officials

Thiruvananthapuram: The civic body is on a ‘frantic’ drive against all kinds of unauthorized hoardings, banners, flags and boards placed in the city in the wake of the latest high court order, which has given a 10-day deadline for removal of such hoardings. If the hoardings are not removed in time it will become the personal responsibility of local body secretary and field staff.
As per the order issued on June 3, every unauthorized board/banner/flag/hoarding which is not removed within 10 days of the order will become the personal responsibility of the secretary and field staff concerned and that the advertisement tariff and penalties for such boards will be recovered from the officers through a personal recovery action to be initiated under the law including the Revenue Recovery Act.
The court has taken a stringent stand towards the civic bodies with the state government stating in the court that the responsibility of removing the boards is of the local self-government institutions.
Earlier in 2018, the court has been considerate towards the local self-government institutions. In the order issued in October 2018, the court noted that chief secretary has to be made a party in these matters because it would be unfair to find fault with the authorities of the local self-government bodies, which are acting under a lot of duress and without any protection from the aftermath of their legitimate actions. This observation was made regarding violations by ruling front. Now, the sharp directives from the court have left the civic body on a ceaseless mission for the past few days.
Between October 2018 and June 2019, the city corporation has removed 37,368 boards, banners and flags which were found to be unauthorized and levied penalty of Rs 8.72 lakh. The civic body also filed complaints with city police against repeated offenders for placing advertisement boards and hoardings in dividers and medians and 12 FIRs have been registered.
Following the latest court order, corporation secretary has directed that FIRs will be registered and criminal action will be taken against those who continue to erect unauthorized hoardings, boards and banners, after the drive by the corporation to remove them.
A penalty ranging between Rs 2,500-10,000 will also be levied against the offenders. This is being done based on the court order which says that if any unauthorized board/banner/flag/hoarding is detected and consequentially removed and returned to the person or a group, an appropriate criminal case under IPC or Highway Act or under Police Act may be charged and registered against the persons or entities responsible.
The civic body, in a meeting convened here on Tuesday, has decided to forward a letter to city police commissioner seeking police protection for the officials engaged in removal of unauthorized boards since there had been instances when the staff were threatened to be manhandled by the rule violators including political party workers.