Nagpur: Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court on Thursday widened the scope of its ongoing action against illegal hoardings, extending scrutiny from Nagpur city to all 11 districts of Vidarbha and appointing 11 court-appointed commissioners to submit district-wise ground reports within three weeks.The court, which repeatedly passed strict orders against unauthorised hoardings and even directed municipal corporation to issue notices proposing 5 lakh fine for contempt, observed that the problem was not confined to the city.
The directives came during the hearing of a contempt petition filed by Dinesh Naidu, secretary of the NGO Parivartan, before a division bench comprising Justices Anil Kilor and Raj Wakode. The petition alleged non-compliance with earlier court orders concerning illegal hoardings erected during the winter session of state legislature last year.Taking note, the court directed that an amended petition be filed within a week to expand the case’s scope. It appointed district-wise court commissioners to investigate and report on prevalence of illegal hoardings in their respective jurisdictions.The appointed commissioners are: Tushar Mandlekar (Nagpur), Vedant Pandey (Gondia), Shantanu Bhoyar (Wardha), Mahesh Dhatrak (Yavatmal), Jagvijay Gandhi (Akola), Kuldeep Mahalle (Amravati), Mohit Khajanchi (Chandrapur), Kaustubh Devgade (Bhandara), Vijay Morande (Gadchiroli), Rahul Ghughe (Washim), and Rigved Dhore (Buldhana). The court also directed NMC to submit a tabulated report specifying how many violators were served notices and how many were yet to be acted against .
