Charging that illegal and unauthorised hoardings were spoiling the cityscape and causing a major revenue loss for the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, Leader of Opposition Janata Dal (S) in the Council Padmanabha Reddy demanded a Lokayukta inquiry “into the scam”.
Speaking to presspersons here on Friday, he said that while the civic authority's Advertisement Department had a record of only 1,963 hoardings, there were actually more than 4,230 across the city. “If that was not enough, the BBMP has been collecting Rs. 8.23 lakh from only 1,667 hoardings, while 296 are under litigation,” he said.
Annual loss
Mr. Reddy estimated that the BBMP was losing out on Rs. 30 crore in revenue annually.
“The scam has cost it a loss of Rs. 300 crore over the last 10 years. The officials from the Advertisement, Revenue and Legal Departments are hand in glove with the hoarding mafia,” he charged.
“Apart from pulling down these hoardings, the revenue loss should be recovered from these officials, including retired ones. I urge Mayor S.K. Nataraj and Commissioner Siddaiah to order an enquiry into the huge scam.”
Auction
The BBMP must auction the advertisement space instead of allotting it to some agency to bring about transparency. The zonal officials must ensure that no unauthorised hoarding is displayed, he said.
