The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has served notices to 15 companies whose products feature on banners that were put up ahead of Durga Puja but have not yet been removed from the city's pavements.
The KMC had issued an order on October 31 asking all advertisers and advertising agencies to remove banners by November 2. On November 3, mayor Firhad Hakim issued an appeal to the agencies to take down the banners.
The order said “if the same is not done by this stipulated point of time, Advertisement Department, KMC, may impose a fine as per Sec. 203 (8) of the KMC Act”.
Section 203 (8) of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act says “if any person erects, exhibits, fixes or retains any advertisement… without paying the fees under this Chapter, he shall be punished with a fine, which may extend to three times payable as such fees”.
On Tuesday, The Telegraph found banners on CR Avenue, Maniktala Main Road and in Kankurgachhi. Some other places where the KMC has spotted Puja banners are Bidhan Sarani, Diamond Harbour Road, EM Bypass, Sealdah and Kidderpore.
"We have served notices to 15 companies who had advertised their products on these banners. They have to pay a penalty for not removing the banners within our deadline," said a KMC official.
The fee that advertisers or advertising agencies have to pay to the KMC for temporary advertisements is Rs 15/sqft. Advertisers whose banners are up post the November 2 deadline would have to pay Rs 15 for every square foot plus a penalty of Rs 45 for each square foot.
Under instructions from chief minister Mamata Banerjee, all such advertisements in the city are exempt from the civic levy.
Debashis Kumar, the mayoral council member in charge of the KMC's advertisement department, told The Telegraph that the civic body would take down the remaining banners.
"Since the KMC is the custodian of the city, we will remove the banners. But the companies have to pay a penalty," he said.
A KMC team pulled down 45 banners on a stretch of EM Bypass — between Ultadanga and Kalikapur — during a drive on Monday night. "The drive will continue on the rest of the Bypass," said an official.
A KMC official said that a representative from a company that was served the notice came to the KMC headquarters on Tuesday. "They have to pay Rs 36,000 because they had only a handful of banners. The representative has promised to clear the dues soon," said the official.
The KMC has no information on which advertising agency put up these hoardings, which makes it difficult for the civic body to pin responsibility on an agency. This is why the KMC is writing to the companies to find out which agencies they used to put up the advertisements. The entire episode shows how recklessly advertisements are put up and how unprepared the KMC is.
The banners being pulled down will have to be removed by the civic body and dumped in the Dhapa waste disposal ground.