The district administration of Ghaziabad had demanded a report enlisting all the unauthorised unipoles installed in the city from GNN.
Following the incident of unipole crashing on two vehicles around two weeks ago, the district administration of Ghaziabad had demanded a report enlisting all the unauthorised unipoles installed in the city from Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam (GNN).
On Saturday, GNN tabled the list to the administration. However, the list furnished by GNN had only details of authorised unipoles. According to the sources, GNN has provided list of over 700 authorised unipoles in the city.
On January 3, three commuters had a narrow escape after an illegal unipole had collapsed over an SUV and an auto rickshaw on Meerut road.
In order to save its face from the embarrassment caused by their carelessness, GNN had started the operation to dismantle the illegal poles soon after. Meanwhile, DM Ghaziabad, Ritu Maheshwari had aksed GNN to provide a report of all he illegal unipoles/hoarding installed in the city.
However, even after the clear direction, GNN failed to provide details of unauthorised poles to the administration.
When City Spidey asked GNN whether it has the data of illegal advertisement hoardings and unipoles installed in the city, Pramod Kumar Singh, a senior official informed that GNN has compiled the data of all authorized/unauthorized unipoles and hoardings. However, he did not comment why the data was not shared with the administration.
Besides, the apathy of GNN towards the issue of illegal unipoles is not new. Alok Kumar, president of Federation of Apartments owners Association, Ghaziabad (FedAOA) had filed an RTI in October with GNN asking the number of illegal hoardings in the city so far and the action taken in the matter.
Kumar is yet to receive the reply in the matter. “I have filed first appeal as even after three months, GNN has not replied to my query,” Kumar said.
“GNN seems to be adamant on concealing the information of the number of unauthorized unipoles and advertisement boards in the city,” he added.
In 2014, FedAOA had also filed a petition in Allahabad High Court (HC) seeking action against unauthorized unipoles and advertisement boards in the city.
The HC in its order had mandated all municipal corporations of UP to frame rules for the installation of poles, boards and hoardings in their areas. When City Spidey reached out to Pramod Kumar Singh, Additional Commissioner of GNN, he assured that GNN will soon reply to the RTI filed by Kumar.
