No penalty for putting up ‘To Let’ boards, GHMC clarifies

Hyderabad: ‘To Let’ boards put up by individual property owners on their own premises are not being penalised, the GHMC’s Directorate of Enforcement Vigilance Disaster Management (EVDM) said, here on Wednesday.

As part of its mandate to keep public places in the city clean, the EVDM has been penalising only commercial establishments, agents, brokers, house rental firms, real estate firms etc., who were pasting wall posters on a large scale to promote their business.

The Central Enforcement Cell (CEC) was launched to impose penalties on various offences like unauthorised erection of banners, flexes, cutouts, wall posters, wall writings, littering, garbage dumping on roads and nala etc. As part of this initiative, alerts on various unauthorised wall posters are being received through the CEC mobile app, for which e-challans are being generated and served. A large numbers of these alerts were being received on ‘To Let’ boards and advertisements for Wanted, Spot Jobs, Plot sales etc., from across the city.

Referring to some reports in the media that penalties were being imposing on ‘To Let’ boards at private places by owners of the premises, the EVDM Director said in a press note that the CEC was imposing penalties only on commercial business agents/brokers/rental firms/real estate firms, etc, who were pasting wall posters on a large scale across the city, but not on individual property owners. “These firms are defacing the image of the city by pasting wall posters on a large scale at various public places and hence they are liable to be penalised. ‘To Let’ boards when erected by an individual property owner on their own premises are not being penalised,” the press note said.

If there were any such instances of penalty being imposed on ‘To Let’ boards on own premises, it could be brought to notice of the EVDM so that it could be rectified, the press note added.