Nagpur: Nagpur Today through a detailed article had revealed the nexus and the plans of the members of both ruling and opposition parties in NMC to give contract to Dattatray Advertisement Agency to install advertisements on Unipole in the road dividers. When the local advertisement agencies came to know about the scheming plot, a delegation of the local advertisement agencies met the Commissioner of Nagpur Municipal Commissioner and strongly opposed the move of NMC to give tender to Dattatray Advertisement Company. The delegation of the local advertisement agencies demanded that a tender be floated according to laid down laws and rules in the Advertisement Policies.
According to sources, a delegation of local registered Advertisement Agencies met NMC Commissioner Shravan Hardikar in the noon of November 30, 2016. The members of the delegation local registered Advertisement Agencies claimed that they are not opposed to the advertisements on Smart Media on Unipoles. However, the NMC authorities should consider all aspects before formulating the policies. An open tender should be floated to give a chance to all the local registered Advertisement Agencies. The process which is favourable to NMC should be adopted or accepted and contracts to be given.
The present policy says that the contract under the First-Finder should be for a period of three years which will be unfavourable especially for the Unipole project. This was why the local registered Advertisement Agencies had not shown any interest in the Unipole advertisements.
The delegation of local registered Advertisement Agencies told NMC Commissioner that if the contract for advertising on Unipole is given to an outside advertisement agency Dattatray Advertisement Agency without floating open tenders, it would not be fair to them. The local registered Advertisement Agencies should also be given the contract on the same terms and conditions. If the NMC authorities are ready to give contracts on the same terms as proposed by Dattatray Advertisement Agency, then they too would welcome the idea of advertisement through the Smart Media. They assured that they would do a better job too.
While replying to the questions of the delegation of local registered Advertisement Agencies, the Commissioner of NMC Shravan Hardikar said that he would see what can be done during the General Body Meeting.
It could be mentioned here that in order to favour giving the contract of advertisement to Dattatray Advertisement agency, NMC Administration and some members of both ruling and opposition parties had connived and tried to make an amendment in the existing advertisement policies. Nagpur Today’s report on the manner in which an irregularity was planned to be executed was the talk of many officials of NMC. A war plan has already been made for the crucial General Body Meeting slated to be held on December 1, 2016.
It could be easily surmised that all efforts by other members of oppositions to oppose the move to bring a change in the advertisement policy cannot be prevented since the ruling party has the majority and any decision can be taken with the consensus of majority. All that the members of the opposition party can do is to create havoc, shout slogans etc.
Creating a diversionary move, a chaos could be created on some other issue and when the opposition walks off, the decision on change of policy could get an approval with majority. It has also come to fore that the Chairman of Standing Committee and some leaders of opposition are trying their level best to bring about the move to award contract to Dattatray Advertisement Agency.
On the other hand, it remains to be seen what stand will the NMC Commissioner and Mayor (who prefer to hold a clean image) take about this decision during the General Body Meeting. An office-bearer claimed that whatever decision will be taken in the General Body Meeting will be final.
If the NMC authorities go ahead with bringing about the change in Advertisement Policy and award the contract to Dattatray Advertisement Agency, then a Public Interest Litigation will soon be filed to unravel the plot.
– RAJEEV RANJAN KUSHWAHA
