Dinesh Kamath's news 'NMMC prepared to act against politicos who put up illegal hoardings; Forms a Special Team' that was published in Newsband

NMMC prepared to act against politicos who put up illegal hoardings

Forms a Special Team

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: During election time, most of the politicians indulge in putting up of illegal hoardings in a big way. Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation has been facing this problem during every election that took place in the past. After learning from their past experiences, NMMC authorities have now formed a special team to prevent illegal hoardings from coming up anywhere in the city during the forthcoming NMMC elections. The team consists of superintendent, three policemen, workers and a peon and their job is to pull down any illegal banner or hoarding that comes up during the election time. The team has been assigned special powers to carry out this task. The team will also be assisted by ward officials.

This special team will keep a watch on all the hoardings and banners which will be put up by the candidates and their assistants and the moment these hoardings are found to be illegal the team will pull them down. Not only that they will also file FIR against repeated offenders.

Some political and social activists expressed their pleasure over this new step that NMMC has taken. They were of the opinion that the formation of special team will help in keeping a check on the ugly practice of putting up illegal hoardings and banners which city politicians indulge in especially during elections.

The special team keeps moving on vehicles trying to cover every road in the city to ensure that no illegal hoarding or banner is put up on any of the roads in the city. They pay more visits to areas like Nerul, Belapur and Sanpada where scopes for putting up hoardings are enormous. The main feature of this team is that it takes immediate and prompt action the moment they sight the illegal hoardings put up anywhere in the city. The team has been assigned the special power with the help of which the team shows promise of preventing or minimizing the putting up of illegal hoardings. The additional advantage for them is that they are given excellent cooperation by ward officials and social activists while they are performing their duties.

This time, NMMC authorities are extremely careful while handing out licenses to put up banners or hoardings. They have learnt from their past experiences that indiscrete handing of licenses to put up banners can lead to city getting an ugly look. This time since the number of wards has increased to 111 this can lead to a rise in illegal banners ahead of civic polls. But the special team formed by the encroachment department of NMMC is all prepared to face this challenge.