Pimpri Chinchwad hoarding deaths: Former top office-bearer alleges corruption in awarding contracts

The PCMC administration said that it would probe all the allegations and take steps to make the system transparent.

Seema Savale, former chairperson of the civic standing committee and former BJP corporator, has slammed the indecisiveness of the authorities and demanded stringent action against PCMC officials. “There is corruption in this entire business of setting up illegal hoardings. The hoardings have been allowed to be set up without permission. Officials have been, for years, taking money for this,” Savale told The Indian Express.

On Monday, five people were killed and three injured when an illegal hoarding set up in Kiwale area along the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway collapsed following rain and strong winds. The PCMC said the hoarding was illegal and it could not take any action as the matter was pending in the court.

Savale said that she has written to PCMC Commissioner Shekhar Singh demanding a thorough probe in the functioning of Sky, Sign and Licence Department of the PCMC and other departments. She said that, as an RTI activist, she had first raised the issue in 2008-2009 when she had found there were over 2,500 hoardings set up across the industrial city. “I took pictures of all the hoardings, collected their details such as size, shape, material used, the design and other related things. I had submitted everything to the then PCMC administration in 2008-2009. But no action was taken,” she said.

Savale said nothing happened till 2017 when she became the chairperson of the PCMC standing committee. “Realising the gravity of the situation and illegality of the hoardings, I directed the PCMC administration to take over all the hoardings and float a tender so that the work could be allocated to a dedicated contractor. The contractor was supposed to be given the task of monitoring the setting up of the hoardings. We invited offers through the tender process. The tender was for Rs 80 crore. But there was no response from the bidders. And we came up with a second tender with a reduced amount of Rs 40 crore. Again, there was no response from the bidders,” she said.

As a third and decisive step, Savale said, she, as chairperson of the standing committee had directed the PCMC administration to flatten the hoardings. “The PCMC had then appointed a contractor for the purpose. However, the contractor only removed a small and insignificant number of hoardings. These mammoth hoardings were allowed to stay put where they were,” she said.

In effect, Savale said that over the years, the PCMC administration has turned a blind eye towards the hoarding business. “The reason is clear. Those who approach the officials are asked to pay up. When I was a chairperson and even after I left the office, I constantly received complaints that at least Rs 1 lakh was taken from contractors and those wishing to set up illegal hoardings. This has been happening since 2008-2009 and has remained a big money-minting business. I have urged the commissioner to initiate a thorough probe into this matter and bring all the wrongdoings to light,” said Savale.

Stating that there were 7,000 to 8,000 illegal hoardings across the industrial city, Savale said,”The PCMC is giving out a figure of 434 illegal hoardings across the city. Actually, this figure came out because only these many people applied for getting the hoardings regularised. Actually, there are 7-8000 illegal hoardings in the city and they have the blessings of officials and politicians. The civic administration, its officials should be held guilty for the loss of five lives only then we will never see illegal hoardings in the city.”

Municipal Commissioner Singh told The Indian Express that PCMC would investigate all the allegations, including the ones by Savale. “We will probe the matter from all angles, weed out the loopholes and ensure that the system is open and transparent,” Singh said.

The PCMC chief said that for nearly one year, the civic administration had stopped giving permission to new hoardings and in effect started taking a hard look at the system.

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“Only this fiscal, we have started giving permission. We will ensure that the permissions are given strictly in accordance with the state government’s hoarding policy,” he said, and added that the PCMC will also pursue the matter in the high court.