Hyderabad: Nearly 2Lakh challans issued for violation of flexi ads, hoardings

Hyderabad: The Directorate of Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management (EV and DM) wing of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has a mammoth task of collecting Rs.110 crore pending penalties with total challans of 198,250 till date. The EV&DM department provided information after receiving an RTI application from city-based activist Robin Zaccheus. He sought details of E-challans and challans on violation of flexi, advertisements and hoarding boards in GHMC limits.

Robin sought year-wise break-up of total flexi violations in the city. In reply the department said that there is no year-wise break-up available separately for flexi violations. The EV&DM said 198,250 challans have been delivered till date; Rs 9.93 crore penalty has been paid by violators. Yet the department has to get Rs 110 crore.

Ahead of elections, during political rallies various parties put up their flexi, advertisements and hoarding boards for which the Directorate of EV&DM also issued penalties as it violates the GHMC Act. Recently EV&DM slapped fine on several political parties. But when the activist requested information on violations by parties, challan paid or not, the department replied saying no separate break-up is maintained for party-wise for flexi, ad, hoarding violations.

Speaking to The Hans India, Zaccheus said, "Apparently the EV&DM department should maintain political party-wise violations if it has true intentions to curb plastic menace by taking stringent measures against repeat offenders. But, unfortunately, it does not maintain such data, as revealed in the RTI."

He pointed out that on August 2, 2016, Minister of Municipal Administration & IT K T Rama Rao spoke of banning plastic menace because of the flexi culture, not just under the GHMC limits. But in all municipalities/corporations across Telangana no such ban has been enforced so far," said Robin.

He pointed out that KTR had even asked party cadre to refrain from putting up flexis and said "none can become a leader by putting up their flexis; it is by winning hearts of people"

Robin says these words of wisdom from the minister seem to be far from reality. The TRS leaders/activists not only ignored the law, but also ensured every TRS meeting is filled with flexis and unofficial hoardings. They don't seem to bother about winning people's heart. What appears to be important for them is to get into the good books of the TRS working president and the CM. The activist also said recently KTR had announce KCR's three-day birthday celebrations. Not surprisingly flexi violations reported on 16-17 February were 269; the estimated penalty was around Rs 20 lakh.

"It is a known fact for those who actively follow the Enforcement Directorate on social media say they see the "name plate" of the person before issuing a challan. In several instances the challans should have been 4-5 lakh; they were restricted to a minimum. In other instances, the violation reported to the Enforcement Directorate was not responded," said Robin.