Outdoor ad policy amended to plug loopholes, generate income

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, July 11

To plug loopholes and increase revenue from leasing out outdoor advertising contracts, the Local Government Department has amended the ‘Punjab Municipal Outdoor Advertising Policy, 2018’.

In the amendments introduced after clearance from Local Bodies Minister Brahm Mohindra, the department has restricted the time limit of a tender to seven years instead of 10 years. The respective civic bodies have also been allowed to reduce the time limit to five years from seven years.

Framed during the tenure of former Local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, factors such as prolonged litigation over advertising contracts, pilferage of revenue and guidelines on bifurcation of civic bodies into zones necessitated amendments in the policy, said a government functionary.

Instead of a single tender in a civic body, the department has allowed maximum of two tenders, especially in big cities such as Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Patiala. The civic bodies have been allowed to formulate the zones for tendering to ensure there was no revenue loss.

However, in another clause to allow re-arrangement of clusters, the department has not clarified the actual site plan with feasibility clearance which is uploaded at the time of opening tenders. “Now, the bidders with connivance with department officials declare low demand sites as non-feasible after tenders are allotted so that the lease money is charged on pro rata basis. Giving a site plan with feasibility would have checked such type of evasions,” said sources in the department.