Hyderabad: Traders irked as GHMC serves notices against huge sign boards

Rajendranagar: Soon after pulling down the advertisement hoardings from the pillars of PVNR Expressway from Attapur to Upperpally, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is now taking on name boards, flexies, flashlights on shops in markets and colonies.

The GHMC officials in Rajendranagar have begun slapping intimation notices on shop owners against displaying oversized name boards with flashlights or non-static illuminations and devices, and erecting flexies on footpaths as it causes inconvenience to motorists on the roads.

Stating that the government had framed certain guidelines for erecting name boards on shops and trade establishments, the officials slapped intimation notices on scores of owners asking them to tune their signboards with the guidelines henceforth. "Only one name board is permitted per establishment of area not exceeding 50 square feet and cumulative area of such boards for each shop shall not exceed 15 per cent of the frontal space. No name boards shall be allowed to display on rooftops of any building. Moreover, use of name boards with flashlights or non-static illumination and devices giving rotating messages shall not be permitted as it may distract the attention of motorists thereby leading to accidents," the notice says. The notice signed by the Additional Commissioner (Advertisement), GHMC further reads, "Most of the shops, trade establishments and entities have not taken permission by paying advertisement fee for name boards. They also erected more than one name board in contravene to the advertisement guidelines thereby violating the provisions of the GHMC Act."

Explaining that erection of more than one name board per establishment and carrying illuminated boards without taking prior permission from GHMC will be treated as unauthorised, the notice warned the recalcitrant owners with a hefty penalty of Rs 1,00,000 per board per day if the boards were found erected above 15 feet and Rs 50,000 per board per day if erected above 15 feet from the surface.

"Already, the business is down due to pandemic. Now the notices slapped by GHMC asking to pay advertising fee for carrying name boards and threatening hefty penalties will only add more woes to our misery. We are already on the receiving end ever since we heard about the road-widening proposal that robs us from our livelihood. Now the officials simply came and slapped us another notice with hefty fines if we do not adhere to it while we are in the midst of searching appropriate space to shift the business," rued Arshad, a shop owner at Shastripuram Colony under Rajendranagar.

It is not out of place to mention here that recently the GHMC staff rolled out drive to remove huge hoardings on the pillars of PVNR Expressway from pillar no 118 Attapur to pillar no 156 Upperpally which were hanging there for almost five years causing inconvenience for the commuters.