Shiv Sena sets up number to lodge complaints against hoardings

The Shiv Sena on Friday informed the Bombay high court it was setting up a toll free number for Mumbai on which people would be able to lodge a complaint anonymously about any illegal hoardings put up by their party. Satisfied with this, the court suggested all the political parties across Maharashtra to set up toll free numbers to curb menace of illegal hoardings in the state.

The division bench of Justice A.S. Oka and Justice R.D. Dhanuka made this suggestion while hearing a bunch of PILs on the issue of illegal banners, hoardings and posters put up by political parties across the state. The petitions have sought directions for the concerned authorities to make the state free from illegal hoardings. Advocate Vishwajeet Sawant on behalf of Shiv Sena told the bench that the party was setting up a toll free number on which people would be able to anonymously report about illegal hoardings.

“People can call on the toll free number 1800228595 from Monday to Saturday. The number will be manned by one Harshad Pradhan who will take down complaints of any illegal hoarding or poster and will initiate appropriate action,” said advocate Sawant.

Though the judges appreciated the initiative of Sena, the bench however also suggested that it would be ideal if arrangements were made to receive complaints even on Sundays and public holidays. The bench observed, “It would also be ideal if all political parties follow this and have their own redressal mechanism in every city across the state.” It also added, “We direct political parties, especially those before us, to respond to this suggestion and file affidavits within a month.”

The court also directed state director general of police to issue directions to all police stations in the state to take prompt action, if they receive any complaints from civic body officials. The order was issued after counsels of various civic bodies informed the court that in some instances, police was not cooperating with the municipal officials.

About one such incident, the Deonar police submitted a report in the court, which said that RPI activists obstructed civic body officials from removing illegal hoardings put up by the party in suburban Deonar. Following this, the court observed that according to the FIR registered and the report submitted by Deonar police, RPI workers obstructed municipal officers while they were removing hoardings and had also allegedly assaulted them. “We direct the police to submit another report before us in a month on progress in the case,” the court had stated.