Click to play videoMumbai: The Mumbai beautification drive is getting a new fillip with Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's latest initiative against hoardings in the city.
He wants the law against hoardings to be given more teeth.
As a first step, Vilasrao Deshmukh has asked his party men not to celebrate his birthday by putting up congratulatory hoardings.
Though the Chief Minister has asked his party men not to waste money and deface the city by putting up hoardings all over on his birthday, however is seems that his men have ignored his advice.
A more concrete step is the state cabinet's instruction to the Chief Secretary of the state, Johnny Joseph to make the law against hoardings more stringent.
The cabinet has asked the chief secretary to make amendments in the Maharashtra defacement of Public Properties Act on the lines of the Karnataka open places act, 1981.
The Karnataka act is much more stringent, with provisions for imprisonment as well. However, activists fighting for the city's open spaces are still not very convinced.
“Every time they say such things, it just seems like lip-service,” says Convenor, Citispace, Nayana Kathpalia.
The BMC has often been criticised for not implementing the defacement act, however with political backing this time, some real action is likely to be seen.
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