Bengaluru: Cutting across party lines, corporators slammed BBMP officials for failing to provide right statistics on the number of legal and illegal hoardings across the city and revenues earned from them.
BBMP Council Opposition leader Padmanabha Reddy questioned the disparity in the statistics given by the officials to the high court and the Palike council. He said that when the high court objected to unauthorised hoardings and sought information, the BBMP had said that over 10,000 hoardings existed in the city. But in reply to a star question in the Council, the officials gave the figure of 2,039 official and 1,164 unofficial hoardings.
Mr Reddy said, "Rs 2,000 crore revenue was expected from advertisements. Though the state government wrote to the BBMP on its laxity, the Palike failed to act. A CID probe was also ordered. What is the status of the probe?"
Mayor Sampath Raj admitted that corporators and other politicians too have contributed to the flex menace by putting up unauthorised banners ahead of party-related activities.
OFC committee Mr Raj directed BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad to form a committee on optical fibre cables with leaders of both ruling and opposition parties. All the corporators demanded action against the companies that have laid OFCs illegally. Mr Raj said that the committee will look into the loss incurred by the BBMP and also formulate a new OFC policy.
