Drive is currently on at Lucknow to remove the hoardings from prominent places. It started on the pretext of removing political hoardings from top of government properties but the overenthusiastic Municipal Corporation employees roped in other legitimate hoardings as well, leading to sleepless nights for even those outdoor advertising agencies who wish to keep their dealing fair. Every now and then, Municipal Corporation comes with similar drives to torment the advertising agencies. Only recently, a drive was carried on from Amausi airport till Faizabad road on the pretext of the Chief Justice’s visit to the city. What was the relation of Chief Justice’s visit with this drive still remains a mystery but as part of the entire drive, lot many hoardings, whose payment had been collected by the corporation till March 31, 2007, were removed, thus leading to severe financial losses for the agencies concerned. Aziz Haider talked to prominent people involved in the business of outdoor advertising to know their view on these frequent drives by the municipal corporation.
Rajneesh Rawat, Managing Director of Origins Advertising Pvt. Ltd., has greatest number of hoardings in the city of Lucknow. In fact, his agency is presently the number one agency in UP in the business of outdoor advertising. Rawat is of view that though no industry could remain bereft of problems, there should not be problems for those doing legitimate business. Says Rawat: “There are clear-cut guidelines. Though I agree that all agencies do not follow these guidelines, we try to abide by them to the extent possible. But when the drive occurs, we and others are all treated with the same stick irrespective of the fact that we have got the sanction from the municipal corporation after paying fees for each of the hoardings.”
Rawat’s case is a perfect example of how all suffer because of the mischief of one or few of the agencies. This chiefly happens because laws are not followed strictly.
Rawat cites the case of Delhi where banning the hoardings also closed the sources of revenue for the corporation and eventually it had to resort to tax hikes to generate money that it needed. Finally, the corporation had to look at its ban afresh and when it gave the go-ahead finally, it started getting about 400-500 crore worth of revenue through outdoor advertising. “It was the common man who benefited. Unfortunately, we do not think that way,” adds Rawat.
Rawat argues that when the administration has already sanctioned hoardings to respective agencies after taking fee for them, they should not take those hoardings back in the legal way. He fears that such drives will catch on as the elections draw near. He says: “Earlier there were no such problems even during election period but now the nuisance has increased.” And adds: “Why should the hoardings be removed if a particular person is visiting the area? We are doing legitimate business.”
Tariq Khan, a prominent outdoor advertiser and director of Fourth Pillar Academy cites lack of political will, entry of small operators and lack of cohesive unity between the various advertising agencies as the root cause of the problem. Says Khan: “In my view the solution is possible through a joint working mechanism between the Municipal authorities and representatives of the industry. Outdoor Advertising Association will monitor and point the illegitimate or hazardous hoardings to the authorities. But presently the committee has no representatives from the Association and hence no way to pass our views to them. If we wish to do something directly, nothing will happen. Nagar Nigam should involve us and we will sort out the problems for them.”
Khan agrees to the lack of cohesive unity among the advertising community though he says that the problem is not rampant in Lucknow. He says that earlier Prime Ministers and Presidents of the country have visited Lucknow but no hoardings were removed. “Why now?”
Khan points that when the authorities have already taken payments till the end of financial year it is their duty to safeguard the hoardings. Instead what is happening is that Corporation officers come now and then to remove them even so the corporation itself has collected money for those hoardings.
Another Khan associated with the outdoor advertising industry is Jamal Khan, who is currently the president of the industry’s association. Jamal Khan’s sleep has once again been taken away by the current order and he is running pillar to post to get the matter sorted out. The association recently met Akhilesh Yadav, which enabled them to get some respite but going by the recent trend, nobody concerned with the outdoor advertising in the State can rest at peace that his hoardings would remain intact till the time for which they have deposited the payments with the Corporation. Wonder when the Corporation will come out with a foolproof plan that will work to everybody’s satisfaction!
Rawat’s case is a perfect example of how all suffer because of the mischief of one or few of the agencies. This chiefly happens because laws are not followed strictly.
Rawat cites the case of Delhi where banning the hoardings also closed the sources of revenue for the corporation and eventually it had to resort to tax hikes to generate money that it needed. Finally, the corporation had to look at its ban afresh and when it gave the go-ahead finally, it started getting about 400-500 crore worth of revenue through outdoor advertising. “It was the common man who benefited. Unfortunately, we do not think that way,” adds Rawat.
Rawat argues that when the administration has already sanctioned hoardings to respective agencies after taking fee for them, they should not take those hoardings back in the legal way. He fears that such drives will catch on as the elections draw near. He says: “Earlier there were no such problems even during election period but now the nuisance has increased.” And adds: “Why should the hoardings be removed if a particular person is visiting the area? We are doing legitimate business.”
Tariq Khan, a prominent outdoor advertiser and director of Fourth Pillar Academy cites lack of political will, entry of small operators and lack of cohesive unity between the various advertising agencies as the root cause of the problem. Says Khan: “In my view the solution is possible through a joint working mechanism between the Municipal authorities and representatives of the industry. Outdoor Advertising Association will monitor and point the illegitimate or hazardous hoardings to the authorities. But presently the committee has no representatives from the Association and hence no way to pass our views to them. If we wish to do something directly, nothing will happen. Nagar Nigam should involve us and we will sort out the problems for them.”
Khan agrees to the lack of cohesive unity among the advertising community though he says that the problem is not rampant in Lucknow. He says that earlier Prime Ministers and Presidents of the country have visited Lucknow but no hoardings were removed. “Why now?”
Khan points that when the authorities have already taken payments till the end of financial year it is their duty to safeguard the hoardings. Instead what is happening is that Corporation officers come now and then to remove them even so the corporation itself has collected money for those hoardings.
Another Khan associated with the outdoor advertising industry is Jamal Khan, who is currently the president of the industry’s association. Jamal Khan’s sleep has once again been taken away by the current order and he is running pillar to post to get the matter sorted out. The association recently met Akhilesh Yadav, which enabled them to get some respite but going by the recent trend, nobody concerned with the outdoor advertising in the State can rest at peace that his hoardings would remain intact till the time for which they have deposited the payments with the Corporation. Wonder when the Corporation will come out with a foolproof plan that will work to everybody’s satisfaction!
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