LUDHIANA: With the aim of generating some revenue, civic officials have finalized the means and sites for allowing the display of advertisements under the new policy notified by the Local Bodies department. Civic officials have also floated tenders on Wednesday for hiring the agency for advertisements in the city. The policy was notified in March, and officials were supposed to implement it within two months. However, it took a long time to finalize the terms and conditions of the policy.Officials will allow advertisements on unipoles, LED boards, gantries, utilities, garbage dumps, dust bins, benches, foot overbridges, and bus queue shelters. Officials have identified 14 means of advertisements at 3,765 locations in the city. But it is still not clear whether rain-cum-bus queue shelters constructed recently by the MC for compensating a private company would be included in this or not, because MC was yet to serve a termination notice to the company, as per the directions of Local Bodies minister Navjot Sidhu.However, there is a complete ban on advertisements at traffic barricades, police assistance booths, traffic assistance booths, railway station, bus terminal, airport , on building rooftops, residential areas, monuments, and mobile vans.Once officials complete the process of hiring, the agency will also keep a check on banned places to impose challans on defaulters. The policy states MC would remove unauthorized advertisements installed at any location, and its cost should be recovered from the advertiser or the property owner, and officials should also impose a penalty/fine as per MC laws.MC commissioner Jaskiran Singh said they had floated tenders for hiring the agency for advertisements, and they would allot the task to the agency for five years. MC is expecting a revenue of Rs30 crore through this source.Notably, to ensure transparency in the system, officials will provide information on the MC website. They will display the name and contact of the nodal officer appointed by the department, and the area under his or her jurisdiction. The number of advertisement devices permitted, along with their type, size, name, and location will also be available on the MC portal, along with the contact number of the advertising licence-holder and validity of the permission.

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