Mobile van ad issue rocks civic body House meeting

Sandeep Rana
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 15

The issue of advertisements on mobile vans, which was recently highlighted by Chandigarh Tribune, was raised in the MC House meeting today, but questions still remain unanswered.

Leader of Opposition Devinder Singh Babla asked MC Commissioner KK Yadav as to why the huge revenue opportunity that came to the MC was turned down even after getting the approval?

“The MC is short of funds due to which several works are lying pending. But we have failed to earn revenue,” he said.

On this, Yadav feigned ignorance over the revenue amount that was reportedly returned to the firm concerned. Chandigarh Tribune, however, has documentary proof in this regard. “I will have to check whether the amount has been refunded,” he said. On this, Babla replied: “Your Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Hemant Yadav, has stated in the report that the amount was returned, then how can you say that you don’t know about it?” Yadav said: “The OSD is not the authorised official to comment.”

The MC chief later said the private agency concerned and the corporation were in talks over whether to give the contract for six months or five years. He said they would again ask the agency to submit a proposal.

However, as per the documents, the MC had granted the permission to Decode Advertising Pvt Ltd on January 5 for displaying advertisements on an LED mobile van for five years. In this letter, the civic body had asked to submit the fee.

Following this, the firm paid Rs72 lakh as the fee through two cheques, which the MC returned about a month later due to some “administrative reasons.” The agency had planned to start about 10 such vans in two months. This could have fetched the MC Rs8-9 crore in revenue. The MC had taken six months to grant the approval. However, after granting permission, they returned the amount without any specific reason. Meanwhile, many vehicles with ads ply in the city illegally and without paying any fee.