GOVT. LOSING LAKHS OF RUPEES ON INCOME FROM HOARDINGS. NT News Service. Mapusa. March1: There are nothing less than 2,000 hoardings in the state, according to some senior government officials, as described in government notification and each board/hoarding upto one square metre is to fetch government an income of Rs. 200 per year and for subsequent one meter or part thereof, their owners have to pay Rest. 50 to the state exchequer. The government is supposed to get a minimum income of Rs. 4 lakh considering that all the hoardings/boards are of one square meter, though the size of most of them is nothing less than 10 square meters with scores of them being atleast 30 square meters. However, the income that the government has been getting from the owners of the hoardings/boards displayed along the National Highways passing through the state and all important roads all over the state, is a paltry Rs. 1.42 lakh from the owners of 7 agencies across the state. The total number of legal hoardings all over the state is just 81, with 76 of them being in North Goa. Five advertisement agencies has sought permission from North Goa Collector, who is the designated authority to issue permission for putting up 5 hoardings and paid an amount of Rs. 17,000 for the same period. A rough count made by this reporter revealed that there were nothing less than 250 hoardings between Margao and Cortalim alone of bigger sizes more than 10 square meters, but number of houses, walls, etc which have been painted on by the advertisers. Similarly there are nearly 200 hoardings between Agassaim and Panaji and over 150 between Mondovi bridge and Mapusa bus stand. Not only has the government been not getting the income from these hoardings but many of them have been put up at places where they are prohibited and are a cause of distraction to the traffic and could lead to accidents. One of them is at the cross road near Hotel Green Park, near Mapusa. The government by a notification issued on November 26 2001, had laid down norms for issuing permissions for erection of hoardings in the state and among the conditions for issuing permissions was threat they should be 50 meters from any of the tangent points of a road intersection, at over bridges or under-passes where railway or other vehicles ply over one another, but there are a number of hoardings which are against these rules, with some of them touching the roads. As per the notification only the collector of each of the two districts is the empowered authority to issue licences for putting up hoardings but the records from the two collectorates reveal that less then 5 per cent of the hoardings in the state were legal and that government has been losing a considerable income that it ought to have got. Sources in both the collectorates revealed that though permissions have been issued to some advertisement agencies no physical verification of the hoardings/boards has been done to verify their location and their area. Besides, though it is mandatory for displaying the number of permission granted by the authority and the date, hardly any hoarding carries this requirement. The sources also revealed that efforts were made to collect the dues from the advertisers but they have been reluctant to pay the fees citing one reason or the other with some of them taking a stand that the hoardings were put up on private property and as such they need not pay the government. The term property as described in the Goa Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1988, is that "property includes any building, monument, statue, water pipeline, public road, structure, wall including compound wall, three, fence, post, pole or any other erection except specified places. The contention of the advertisers with regard to non-payment of hoardings on private land is disputed by government officials who say that since there is no mention of excluding the hoardings on private property from payment of licence fee their owners are liable to pay the fees to the government. A senior official also said that since one of the clauses under the Act, "public view," describes the term as any thing which is visible to public while they are in or passing along public place ad since these boards are visible to public their owners need to pay the government. As per the notification the permission need not be obtained for advertisements or sky sign displayed within railway premises but not facing any street, advertisement displayed on vans and hoardings/display boards declaring name/profession and details of the occupant subject to maximum size of 5 square meters. It may be recalled that 44 hoardings around the Kadamba Transport Corporation bus stand at Panaji were removed by the collector of North Goa some time ago citing the provision of the law while others continue to be at their respective places despite objections being raised against their locations. Besides, the agencies have not taken any action against them despite their owners not having taken permission from concerned authorities despite the law stating that the licence needs to be renewed in every financial year. He government had constituted a committee to study the matter with regards to the objections raised by advertisers some time back but no meeting of the committee has been held so far despite a considerable time being elapsed since its constitution and with the elections round the corner there is no likelihood of any meeting being held in near future said a senior government official. In the meanwhile, the government would continue to lose revenue, which could run into a scores of lakhs at least if not a crore of rupees, that is due to it till the matter is clarified and settled by the committee.
COMMENTS: The notice sent to the Chief Secretary, Govt. of Goa and to the Cabinet Secretary and Secretary PMO's office, Govt. of India, New Delhi has referred to the same as voiced by the Navhind Times news report above. This report should be the eye opener for the people of Goa that not only the successive previous governments, but the Government of Manohar Parrikar has failed miserably to put the governance of the state on the right track and contrary to what is given to be believed. If at all anything is happening, it is only the cosmetic changes to catch people's imagination and their votes. Re sprucing up of Panjim, one look at the Junta House from the street below will tell you that our city fathers have lost their sight for eye-sores. The entire fa�ade of this prestigious building (its verandas) are clogged with discarded furniture and things that would be best dumped in graveyards. And to think of it that Manohar Parrikar is IFFITIZING the neighbourhood.!!! The Goa Government and the Center has until 13th of April to regulate the hoardings on our Goan Highways and roads. Goa Su-Raj will not allow this free for all and the run-in on the exchequer. And that is its raison d'etre. Floriano Lobo goasuraj ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
