Hyderabad: A multi-crore scam has been alleged in the unauthorised removal of hoardings.
According to sources, the corporation has only accorded permission for 2,680 hoardings. Since 2011, the civic body did not even issue a single permission.
This has resulted in a rise of about 2,500 unauthorised hoardings across the city.
The corporation recently conducted a special drive and identified 333 unauthorised hoardings. Sources allege that '28 crores has been dented in corporation revenue in the form of unauthorised hoardings since the past seven years.
Recently, the GHMC in its official release claimed that it had to pull down 85 unauthorised hoardings. But the private agencies which had been maintaining the 111 unauthorised hoardings pulled them down themselves, which is against the norms. The corporation has lost at least a crore by allowing the agencies to pull down their own unauthorised hoardings.
Reacting, G. Shyamsunder Goud, president, TS Vanarula Parirakshana committee, said that it required five tons of iron to erect a 40 x 20 size hoarding, and that as per GHMC's agreement, a private agency had to pay '13 per kg of iron, for every unauthorised hoarding.
But turning a blind eye to the agreement, private agencies including Roshan Ads, Rainbow, Prakash Ads, Kalyani Ads, MR Publicities, Bhavana Ads, and Social Media pulled down their unauthorised hoardings themselves. He demanded that the corporation blacklists the agencies and collects the revenue which has been lost. The officials concerned were unavailable for comment.
