Ever since the Bombay High Court order directed all municipal corporations, councils, and gram panchayats to conduct a special drive for the removal of illegal hoardings and banners erected on public streets, parks, and other places, there has been more than a 50% reduction in the illegal ad hoardings, sources tell Storyboard18.
Constitutionally and by law, the gram panchayat is not authorised to allot licences and permissions for hoardings on any highways or roads passing through the particular village.
Any sites to be allotted are the sole purview of the highway authority or the state administration.
In fact, licences and approvals being granted by the gram panchayats are one key reason for illegal billboards sprouting on highways, shares Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA) CEO Praveen Kumar Vadhera.
On November 26, the government resolution (GR) was issued by the Rural Development Department, which directed all gram panchayats to refrain from granting permissions to any hoardings or billboards, warning of action against violations.
The GR was issued following a directive from the High Court in August that emphasised that under the Gram Panchayat Act, 1959, gram panchayats lack authority to grant permissions or issue no-objection certificates for advertising hoardings within their jurisdiction.
“Technically the gram panchayats don’t have any role, especially in urban areas; the Mumbai Expressway runs through quite a few rural villages, gram panchayat is not the authority. Such sites are either taken care of by the urban corporation or local municipal corporation and in the absence of a local municipal corporation, it is the highway authority that will allocate the licenses,” Vadhera explains.
“Both court and government have come down very heavily on illegal ad hoardings, concerning the gram panchayat authority. Result of this, there has been quite a bit of reduction because agencies have cleared off such illegal sites after they’ve been disallowed by the Court and the state government as well.
Overall, there has been a clear cut-down of the gram panchayat holdings- of more than 50%; except for a few isolated incidents”, he shares.
IOAA can’t take any punitive action in such instances. The only thing is that it can do is to highlight that these are illegal to the buying agencies and the brands, to ensure that they are not bought.
“Such a challenge is prevalent all across the country because that’s the shortcut media. No land actually sort of falls under the purview of the gram panchayat.
It’s very difficult to identify such incidents because this happens in very small pockets or remote pockets, hence a difficult proposition to identify,” explains a media owner.
Apart from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) draft policy for outdoor advertising, there’s nothing really in terms of policy that is coming over to crack down on the gram panchayats except for the government. The state government is quite clear that panchayats don’t have the right to allocate any land or space for holdings.
Countrywide Crackdown on Illegal Hoardings
Not only just in Mumbai but across the country, various government bodies have intensified their fight against the plight of illegal ad hoardings, following the unfortunate Ghatkopar incident.
The Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) has stepped up its efforts to eliminate unauthorised posters, hoardings, wall paintings, and banners that have been put up across the city without permission. In a recent executive meeting, Mayor Sushma Kharkwal directed officials to take strict action against individuals and organizations responsible for such illegal promotional materials.
The special drive will target those who have placed posters or painted promotional advertisements on public and government buildings. Offenders will face fines and will be required to restore the affected walls to their original condition at their own cost.
Municipal Commissioner Inderjit Singh has ordered teams to conduct a comprehensive survey across all zones in the city and take immediate action. In cases of tax evasion linked to these activities, FIRs will also be filed against the violators.
Last week, the Tamil Nadu Highways Department instructed all the district collectors to remove advertisement boards that have been installed within the right of way of highway roads.
As mentioned by the Coimbatore Consumer Cause Secretary K. Kathirmathiyon, the directive was issued based on the consumer body raising the issue with the department.
For its part, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has added a penal provision to take action against those who illegally put up hoardings/flexes/banners in the draft BBMP (advertisement) Bye-laws, 2024 has sought the Karnataka High Court’s permission to notify the bylaws.
Similarly, the civic bodies in Pune and Thane are also discouraging unauthorised advertising.