The officials of the District Central have been at loggerheads over advertisement sites in the area.
A few videos of Central District Municipal Corporation officials and an advertiser recently went viral on social media.
In one of the clips, a man is seen demanding Rs250,000 from the advertiser for not dismantling his hoarding installed at a residential building near NaganChowrangi.
The man who demands money is actually a member of the team that came to dismantle the advertisement site.
The advertiser tries to cut a deal with the man, but he is not willing to accept anything less than Rs250,000.
Last week, a private team reached NaganChowrangi with a crane, truck and other machinery to dismantle a gigantic hoarding. As soon as it started dismantling the hoarding, the advertiser reached the spot and tried to intervene.
Central DMC Advertisement Director Shamoona Sadaf reached the site too. She told media that she asked the private team members to stop the operation and identify themselves.“I asked them who permitted them to dismantle the hoarding,” she said. “A team member, Abdullah, replied that they were there on the directives of Central DMC Municipal Commissioner Muhammad Ali Zaidi.”
Sadaf said the municipal commissioner did not inform her about the operation. She said the advertiser told her that a team was at the site to dismantle the hoarding.
“Abdullah made my video and accused me of supporting the advertiser by trying to prevent dismantling of the hoarding,” she said.
Sadaf said that being the Central DMC advertisement director, the municipal commissioner should have informed her but he did not. She claimed the man who demanded Rs250,000 from the advertiser was Abdullah.
The advertisement director said the municipal commissioner does not issue her written orders about operations against illegal or irregular advertisements in the district.“If the municipal commissioner can arrange machinery for a private team, why the same facility is not provided to us,” she questioned.
Reached for comment, Central DMC Municipal Commissioner Muhammad Ali Zaidi had a different story. He admitted that he sent the team along with machinery to dismantle irregular and illegal advertisement sites before the monsoon season.
