South body allows adverts on private commercial properties

NEW DELHI: In a bid to increase its revenue, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has allowed private commercial properties to be used for advertisements panel and hoardings.

The proposal in this regard was cleared by the House on Friday. However, the Opposition and executive wing said the decision is in contravention of the Supreme Court order and needs appropriate amendment in the advertisement policy.

The councillors from the Bhar- atiya Janata Party (BJP) argued that the decision would increase the revenue collection as the midlevel advertisers can use the spaces for putting up advertisements. All the three MCDS are ruled by the BJP.

However, the Congress councillors and SDMC officials said that the proposal would require amendment in new outdoor advertisement policy approved by Supreme Court in 2017. “Making any change in the policy will need permission from SC else it would lead to contempt of court. The proposal cleared in Friday meeting was a private submis- sion. In fact, bringing such private bills without court’s permission is also unlawful,” said Abhishek Dutt, Congress councillor.

The BJP said that the proposal would be followed as per norms.

“We have decided to incorporate certain points in the advertisement policy for increasing the revenue. The current policy was allowing only big players to buy the advertising spaces on cluster basis… In fact, the SDMC was also not able to sell all its clusters due to the existing norms,” said Shikha Rai, leader of house, South DMC.