Chandigarh: Haryana Urban Local Bodies Minister, Vipul Goel said that the pasting of posters and flexes on public properties/ buildings by private individuals, institutions, establishments and others for advertising of their own business is an illegal activity under the Haryana Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1989 and the Haryana Municipal Acts.
Urban Local Bodies Minister, Vipul Goel was replying during the calling attention motion on the issue of defacement of public properties in the State by the affixation of stickers, bills and posters, during the Haryana Vidhan Sabha winter session here today.
He informed the House that the department will run a mega cleanliness drive in all cities within the next 10-15 days, during which any illegally placed posters, stickers, and other advertising materials will be removed.
He said that as per provisions of the Haryana Municipal Act 1973 and the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act 1994, any advertisement within the municipal limit is prohibited without the prior permission of the municipal authority i.e., the Commissioner in case of Municipal Corporation and the Executive Officer or Secretary in case of Municipal Council or Committee.
Goel said that the government has notified the Haryana Municipal Advertisement Bye laws on July 15, 2022 for the purpose of regulating and allowing legal way of advertisements within municipal areas.
He said that under these byelaws, the advertisement on properties of Government entities and agencies can only be permitted through Open E-auction for which an online portal has also been launched on October 11, 2022.
As per byelaw no. 22, the unauthorized advertisements are also punishable under the provisions of the Haryana Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1989.
The entire list of authorized Outdoor Media Device (OMDs) shall be displayed, without ownership display, for scrutiny by public at large and various entities like companies, agencies, brands to identify and ensure that the advertisement being released by them is being mounted only on authorized OMDs.
Failure to comply with above requirement shall be punishable under the Haryana Prevention of Defacement of the Property Act, 1989 (11 of 1990).Any unauthorized outdoor advertisement shall be removed promptly by the municipality and shall be immediately disposed-off, said the Minister.
He stated that the municipality shall issue notice to concern individual/ owner for installing unauthorized OMDs as per provisions of the Haryana Prevention of Defacement of the Property Act, 1989 (11 of 1990) and take action of removing the unauthorized OMD and penalizing the individual/ owner.
He also informed the house that under the byelaw no. 27, provisions for heavy penalty (three times the applicable permission fees on monthly basis) have been made along with provision to blacklist/ deregister the advertising agencies and property owners for three years.
He further said that whosoever contravenes any provision of these bye-laws, shall also be liable, without prejudice to any other action that may be taken by the municipality to remove such contravention and to pay unauthorized charges for such contravention at a rate equal to three times the applicable fee/ charges (as quarterly rates of the concerned OMD) on the date of commencement of such contravention for the period of such contravention or a quarter, whichever is more.
Any registered entity or listed owner (for self-advertisement only) which has displayed the unauthorized media shall also be liable to be deregistered or delisted by the municipality.
Any registered entity or listed owner (for self-advertisement only), once deregistered or delisted under bye-law 27 (3) or (4) above, shall not be permitted to register or listed for a period of three years from the date of deregistration.
Under the above Acts and Byelaws, municipalities are competent for taking action against such illegal pasting of posters and flexes on Government buildings/ properties, added the Minister.
The Urban Local Bodies Minister said that the municipalities in the State are taking regular action against such illegal stickers/ bills/ posters and flexes on public properties and illegal advertisements by way of their removal and penalizing the violators via enforcement drives undertaken from time to time.
As per action taken reports received from the municipalities, total 1915 notices have been issued to violators and total 3022 enforcement drives have been conducted.
In these drives total 108334 poster/ bills/ stickers/ advertisements/ flexes have been removed in last two financial years i.e., 2023-24 and 2024-25, under the provisions of the Haryana Municipal Act 1973, the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994, the Haryana Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1989.
He said that the Haryana Municipal Advertisement Byelaws, 2022 also provides a mechanism to allow legal advertisements in the municipalities for generating revenue, via an open auction based online system.
Till date, through this system, total 624 public sites have been auctioned for Rs. 133.22 crores and total 3871 permissions on private properties for Rs. 141.14 crores have been granted.