Defence, Secunderabad axe on 7 hoardings in Cantt

SECUNDERABAD: Launching a crackdown on private advertisement agencies for eating into their revenues, the Defence Estates Office (DEO), Telangana, and Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) on Wednesday pulled down seven hoardings and flexis illegally run on defence land in Bowenpally.
Officials said that out of 19 hoardings, seven were removed and the remaining would be brought down on Thursday.The illegal hoardings were installed on the premises of a Muslim graveyard near Bowenpally crossroads.
He said they need not issue a notice to the agencies concerned before razing them down since the hoardings were put up illegally. As per official records, the graveyard is spread over 7.32 acres and located in survey No. 588. The land is categorised under ‘B-3’ (land belonging to ministry of defence and given on lease) land and given on lease for religious purposes. Officials said the custodian of the land is DEO.
Surprisingly, the graveyard management has been collecting fee from the advertisement agencies towards rental charges for allowing them to operate the hoardings. “But, neither the DEO nor SCB has gotten a single penny from these hoardings,” an official said.
Sources said the DEO authorities would carry out a drive to remove all the illegal hoardings which came up on defence land.
Meanwhile, the graveyard management has approached defence estates officer Vineet S Nair with a plea to not to remove the hoardings as they would lose income.
But, the DEO rejected their plea and asked the officials to go ahead with their drive.