Rapido Bikes fined Rs. 13 lakhs for illegal banner ads

Hyderabad: Rapido Bike and Taxis has been fined Rs. 13, 79,000 by the Directorate of Enforcement, Vigilance & Disaster Management (EV&DM) of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), for advertising by illegal banners.

The EV&DM department which launched the Central Enforcement Cell (CEC) app last October, has also penalised companies like the British Spoken English for Rs. 33,62,000, The Natural Hair Treatment for Rs.13,79,000, The Venkat jobs in MNC for Rs.39,56,000, The Bill Soft Technologies for Rs.9,38,000, Act Fiber Net for Rs.14,19,000 and The Hathway Broadband for Rs.8,13,000.

The notice has been issued to these companies, said officials. The above mentioned companies are Top 7 penalty payers among 44403 numbers of violations, registered in the CEC app till Jan 18.

The fines were enforced for pasting of illegal banners, flexis, cutouts, wall posters, wall writings, littering and garbage dumping on roads and nala etc.

As on Jan 18, the vigilance department has removed 8, 60,755 number of wall- posters/banners/flexi/cutouts in the areas which are under GHMC limits.

The CEC app which is open only to the vigilance department employees, as of now, allows them to upload a complaint. The officials can add picture, location and defaulters information the app. The app will then generate the e-challan based on the complaint. This e-challan will then be delivered by the vigilance department officials to the defaulters.

Mr. Vishwajit Kambati, Director of Enforcement and Vigilance Department said, “Every month the department has planned to release such defaulters list, to shame the companies, which are the defacing the city. The quantum of penalty issued to these companies shows that how they have not committed one or two offences, but many. This fine amount shows the quantum of defacement done by these companies.”

He added, “The app receives many complaints from the vigilance department officials as it is not yet open to public, we aim to open up the app to all the GHMC employees by the end of February.”