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| Clean Govt? SMC gifts prime sites to influential people for business promotion | | | Abdul Majid
Early Times Report
Srinagar, June 26: In brazen violation of rules, the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) has allotted prime spaces for installation of commercial hoardings to some prominent business houses.
Sources said no tenders were invited by the SMC while giving prime sites including fountains at the TRC Crossing and Pantha Chowk to the business houses for erecting their hoardings. "The SMC is giving an impression that it has not favoured any business group and that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was being promoted for maintenance of sites," the sources said. They said that allotting space for hoardings at such prime locations for business advertisement would otherwise cost a huge amount as monthly rent.
Sources said most of the influential business families who are into tourism sector have been roped in for the undue favours as they happen to be close to a political party.
Over the years SMC spent millions of rupees on the construction of fountains and on facelift of its prime space along Srinagar roads. Now when it was time to earn some revenue, the business houses are being asked to reap the benefits.
At centrally located TRC Crossing, which hosts a central fountain with flowers beds around, a leading business group having hotels in Srinagar, Gulmarg and Pahalgam has erected its life-size hoardings.
"If the SMC was sincere in its move, a business group is supposed to erect a courtesy hoarding nothing more than few feet long. But what has happened is that in the garb of maintenance life-size hoardings have been erected. The size is so big that it has left the picturesque locale ugly," said a former SMC Commissioner, asking not to be identified.
Insiders in the SMC said the business houses have to spend peanuts in the name of maintenance of these spaces. "Fountains worth millions have already been constructed by the government. The government again provides power supply. So what kind of maintenance of these sites was needed from business houses that the space has been donated to them?" asked a senior SMC official.
Sources said Commissioner SMC Tufail Mattoo inked the deal on the instructions of at least three politicians from a particularly party. "Two of them happen to be cabinet ministers while the third one is MoS," said the sources.
But SMC officials downplay the issue.
"This all was done to encourage (CSR) culture the way it happens in Jammu for maintenance of sites. But now we are formally leasing out four fountains for maintenance to private companies through bid for which tenders have been advertised," an official said. |
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