Observing that the city can’t be ugly any more, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday granted a week’s time to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commission to come out with a policy or bye-law for regulating posters/hoardings.
The court had issued the direction while hearing a petition filed by Andhra Bank questioning registration of a criminal case for putting up an advertisement hoarding highlighting facilities being offered to customers at the bank’s premises in Jayanagar.
Justice A.N. Venugopala Gowda granted the time after Commissioner G. Kumar Naik, who was present in court, explained that the proposed policy is under deliberations.
The court had earlier asked the commissioner to inspect posters and hoardings on the sides of the road from Basaveshwara Circle to the international airport and appear in court with details of unauthorised hoardings.
The commissioner said that 69 hoardings on the stretch are authorised and 19 unauthorised. He also told that the BBMP is deliberating on weight-age to be given for revenue generation and a proposed restriction on erection of hoardings and posters while seeking time to furnish details as he alone can’t finalise the policy.
The court asked the commissioner why the BBMP can’t withhold the salaries of all the officials concerned who fail to discharge their duties in preventing erection of illegal posters or hoardings, and fail to initiate action against such illegal activities.
