Looting from Installation of hoardings in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation

The main source of collection of revenue of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation is from advertisement boards . BMC is collecting revenue from installation of advertisement board whether it is placed either in government land or in private land.  But massive loot has taken place from  installation of  hoardings .

            The concerned officials are taking huge bribe to shorten the size of hoardings in the office records . There are allegations that the BMC officials are taking bribes to the tune of lakhs of rupees to show even half of the real  size of a hoarding in the office record . When some  particular officers and staffs are being gainer in this cheating , the BMC is bearing the loss of cores of rupees . After an enquiry in to the scam it has been planned to attach GPS in the hoarding  . Mobile apps has also been prepared to contain the situation . BMC has been hopeful to check  the loot sitting in the office room . There is a department for calculation of hoarding installed in BMC area . Special staffs are also engaged  to supervise the work. One has to apply to take  permission  before installing the hoardings . But many organizations are  not doing it . This illegal act is being  legalized after giving bribe to the staffs of the particular department .  So this illegal act has been  going on for many years without any  objection . These particular staffs are taking bribes from those who are applying to get permission from BMC .. It is impossible to measure  the hoardings installed on high places . There is no system to know the right size  of the hoardings . A team of engineers are given responsibility to do the same work if complaints in this regards are received . But the concerned officials are taking bribes and preparing  reports  sitting in the office room  The concerned staffs are  reducing the size of the big hoardings by half  in pen and paper .So the agency is also  reducing the revenue by half  . The agencies are cheating the payments which are to be given to BMC  . Some agencies  are involved in fraudulence .   They replace their hoardings  by doubled size of it .But the BMC staffs are not making enquiry  of it . 

It is astonishing that the BMC does not have any plan for collection of a single rupee from instillation of hoardings on private land . The collection of revenue in this field depends on the mercy  of advertisement agencies . BMC only makes plan for collection of revenue from the hoardings installed on government land  . In the last financial year , the municipality had a plan to collect revenue amounting Rs 7,64,12,785 from the hoardings in government land but half of the targeted amount have been  collected . It has been collected Rs 3cores only form hoardings installed  in private land. Finally an  enquiry was  conducted last year into the irregularities . 37 private agencies were registered . BMC got profit out of it.. It is a big thing that after submission of application of an agency for installing hoarding , the payment should be fixed measuring it. The BMC has not sufficient staffs to carry out the work. The engineers are  not visiting the spot . No engineer even has prepared the report visiting the spot during last two years . The officers have given responsibility of it on two clerks  . After allegations of irregularities one staff has been transferred  to other place .

As per information from a senior officer ,  BMC has decided to attach GPS to hoardings to check irregularities in collection of revenue . A hoarding will be measured before installation so that BMC can know if it is replaced by a new one . So there will be no mistake in the measurement and no staff of BMC can change it . Installation of hoardings without attaching GPS will be taken as an illegal act and fine will be charged for it . The amount of revenue to be collected from installation of hoarding will definitely rise .Cyber Swift Infotech Private Limited has own the tender for the work of survey and installation of GPS  and the amount of expenditure of the work is estimated to be Rs 35,38,907 . This organization will make mobile application and take care of it for a year