All railway hoardings ‘unauthorised’: E Sundaravalli
Senior railway officials told DC that they ask their contractors to get the requisite consent from the local body
Chennai: The Chennai Collector has submitted before the High Court that all hoardings in Railway premises are treated as ‘unauthorised’ as not even a single licence had been obtained till date from the Collectorate for erection.
Citing orders on a writ petition by the High Court dated August 11, 2015 which said that a grant of licence from the district collector should be obtained for erecting hoardings on railway premises, the collector declared that all hoardings in railway premises within Chennai district were unauthorised.
Senior railway officials told DC that they ask their contractors to get the requisite consent from the local body. Though the collector stated that information has been relayed to railway authorities regarding action to be taken against illegal hoardings, railway officials denied knowledge of any communication received.
In the period between July 1, 2015 and September 30, 2015, 151 unauthorised hoardings and 1578 digital banners have been removed, the collector submitted before the HC. In this regard, 197 CSR and 37 FIRs have been issued and filed respectively, the affidavit said.
Activist Traffic K.R. Ramaswamy, whose writ led to the initiation of contempt proceedings, told DC that the First Bench was not impressed with the submissions. “The Bench asked facts regarding actions taken against political parties guilty of erecting unauthorised hoardings,” Ramaswamy said. The court also sought explanation from the authorities on why there was so few number of FIRs registered despite the number of hoardings removed clearly being high.
Collector E. Sundaravalli was filing a counter affidavit seeking to purge out of the contempt proceedings issued against her office with regard to presence of illegal hoardings, digital banners in the city.
The collector submitted that the Taluk level monitoring committees and flying squads have been constituted to implement the recommendations of the Justice Rajeswaran monitoring committee. “The entire services of 40 revenue inspectors, 30 Tahsildars and five deputy collectors are being utilised for removal of unauthorised hoardings and digital banners,” the affidavit said.
