Drive Against Unlicensed Hoardings
Workers removing a hoarding in the city on Thursday following the Supreme Court’s verdict on unlicensed hoardings. The Coimbatore Corporation tore down on Thursday flex boards put up by advertisers across the city in a drive against unlicensed hoardings. The action came in the wake of the Supreme Court upholding on Wednesday the verdict of the Madras High Court in 2006 that such hoardings should be removed.
District Collector V. Palanikumar said he had directed the officials and heads of departments to constitute special teams to identify unlicensed hoardings across the district and take steps to remove these.
The Collector asked the heads of Corporations, Municipalities, Town Panchayats, Panchayat Unions and Village Panchayats and also officials of the State and National Highways to identify unlicensed hoardings. Compliance to the instructions would be closely monitored on a daily basis and the entire exercise was expected to be completed within the next few days. As for the drive in the city on Thursday, Town Planning Officer of the Corporation M. Soundararajan said the civic body first targeted the 69 hoardings that were unauthorised. These were located at Avanashi Road Flyover, on Goods Shed Road, Big Bazaar Street, Mettupalayam Road, Sathyamangalam Road and at Ukkadam.
The Corporation engaged private workers to climb the metal structures and tear the flex material. The official said that the removal of the metal structures would be done later as it involved traffic diversion. This might be done a week later. The city had 569 hoardings. Of these, only 77 were authorised. The Corporation straightway began action on 69 hoardings. Now, 423 hoardings would face removal because of the court order. But, those that had applications for license pending with the authorities would be spared of action. The Corporation and other departments would have to get from the Revenue Department a list of hoardings for which applications for license had been submitted. These hoardings would have to be located first. Then the others would be pulled down. The Collector later told on Thursday night that nearly a dozen hoardings in Tirupur have been removed besides nearly 1,000 digital boards and banners across the district. Mr. Palanikumar said the drive would be stepped up on Friday.
