Taking on the officials for shielding the advertising hoarding mafia, North Delhi Mayor Preety Agarwal on Friday directed them to remove all illegal unipole hoardings and illegal advertisements with immediate effect. Taking a serious note of brazenness of the officials, the Mayor held a meeting with the officials of the Remunerative Project Cell Committee.
In the meeting, she said it comes to her notice that the officials concerned are involved in corruption resulting in huge loss to the exchequers of the corporation.
"The revenue has gone down to 50 per cent which is far less than compared to the previous year as more than 90 per cent hoardings and advertisement are illegal," she told The Pioneer.
She said that North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) is witnessing a financial crunch as a result monthly salaries of many employees have not been released and are delayed. Adding that, the loss due to corruption in advertisement hoarding has impacted the overall revenue collection of the corporation.
The fourth grades employees are suffering due to the negligence and irresponsible attitude of the officials of the RP Cell, she said.
The Mayor also said, "I am pained and concerned at the way the officials are working and it seems that they are not answerable to anyone." She also warned that in case of violation, strict action will be taken against both the officials responsible and the contractor involved.
The Mayor further said strict action will be taken against those who are found guilty of harbouring such corrupt and malafide practices.
She also grilled officials for not making on time at the meeting. She said the officials must be punctual and attend the meetings on time as per the schedule.
"No negligence in the working of RP Cell department would be tolerated as the department has potential to lift out the corporation out of financial crunch," Agarwal said. It may be noted that the Mayor is ex-officio chairperson of RP Cell Committee.