CHENNAI: After two RTI petitions in the course of two years, the State Highways Department finally removed illegal hoardings along the Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam radial road on Tuesday.
In reply to an RTI plea filed by local activist David Manohar, the Highways Department claimed on September 7 that there were no hoardings or banners along the stretch. But Manohar said the hoardings were removed just a few days ahead of issuing the RTI reply. But they again appeared just a few days after the reply.
On Tuesday, the Highways Department even removed the poles from the stretch so that the violators cannot put the hoardings again. “This was the same thing which happened after I filed the first RTI in 2016,” said David Manohar.
“We removed the top portion of the hoardings on our land thinking that the perpetrators would clear the unipoles,” said N Anandaraj, additional divisional engineer (C&M), Tambaram sub-division.
On seeing the hoardings again, the additional divisional engineer called in cranes to remove the unipoles on which the hoardings were erected.
When Express asked Anandaraj why no action has been taken against these perpetrators who were making money by erecting advertisement hoardings on highway land, he said they were not able to identify the perpetrators. “These perpetrators are elusive and persistent because the money involved in this business is minimal,” he said.
While the perpetrator who locals allege is an aide of a local politician had been minting money from the six 40x20 hoardings on the stretch, it is the Highways Department which had to incur the costs of bringing it down.
“This game of cat and mouse was paid for with the people’s money,” said David Manohar, who intends to find the actual cost incurred by this game.