BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) spent about Rs 63 lakh just to remove unauthorised hoardings from three administrative zones, and collected only Rs 2.66 lakh as penalty from the same three zones — a mere 4.22% of the amount spent.
The figures were read out from official documents by Padmanabha Reddy, the Leader of the Opposition, at a BBMP council meeting here on Monday. The three zones mentioned are East, West and South. On the same topic, Basavanagudi ward councillor B S Satyanarayana said whatever iron was obtained from the hoardings was auctioned, but details of the revenue generated from it were not available.
Reddy also questioned the drop in revenues generated by advertising structures. He said about Rs 10.4 crore per year was generated between 2012 and 2015 much lower than the amounts generated between 2008 and 2010 — over Rs 18.2 crore per year. “In the court, we have stated the number of hoardings to be 10,000 ... but the records state only 3,166 of which only 2,039 are legal,” he added.
Former chairperson of BBMP’s Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance M K Gunashekar said of the 23 firms that laid optical fibre cables (OFCs), only nine of them had paid the fee for laying cables, which was causing revenue loss to BBMP. “We have invited all operators for meetings multiple times, but most of them have not responded,” he said. He said in 2016, 311 potholes were formed only due to digging by OFC firms, as per records.
He demanded for more information on revenue generated by OFC firms as well as mobile towers, and opined that 90% of the cables laid in the city were unauthorised.
“In 2017-18, though we had estimated a revenue of Rs 300 crore from mobile towers in the budget ... we received only Rs 53 crore,” he said. He added that there was no information available on underground cables, which required operators to pay Rs 600 per metre.
Mayor Sampath Raj directed officials to provide complete information regarding OFCs and mobile towers on Tuesday.
Aero India: BBMP to write to PM, Defence Minister
Mayor Sampath Raj said BBMP will write to the Prime Minister and Defence Minister to appeal to them not to shift Aero Show 2019 out of Bengaluru. He said BBMP was well equipped to carry out the required arrangements for the air show.