Industrialist Punit Balan: Hundreds of activists of Ganesh mandals in Pune take out morcha to PMC head office; Civic body forced to retreat as activists adopt tough stance

On Oct 5, 2023

Pune : NpNews24 Online – Industrialist Punit Balan | The office-bearers and activists of various Ganesh mandals have become aggressive over the notice sent by the Skysign Department of the PMC to industrialist Punit Balan on the issue of displaying advertisements during dahi handi and asking him to pay a fine. On Thursday, hundreds of activists took out a morcha to the PMC head office demanding that the notice should be stayed. Addl Municipal Commissioner Dr Kunal Khemnar assured them that a meeting would be held on Monday to discuss the issue and stayed the notice till then.

The Chief of the Skysign Department, Madhav Jagtap, sent a notice to Punit Balan asking him to pay a fine of ₹3.20 crore for displaying 2,500 banners from dahi handi till the day before Ganesh Chaturthi. The office-bearers and activists of various Ganesh mandals have become aggressive on the issue. The office-bearers and activists of mandals took out a morcha to the PMC and raised slogans against the civic administration.

A delegation consisting of Nitin Pandit, Hrishikesh Balgude, Shirish Mohite, Kumar Renuse, Sandeep Kale. Bhau Karpe, Mayur Uttekar, Pushkar Tuljapurkar, Rajendra Kakade, Prithviraj Nimbalkar, Prasad Patwardhan, Bhagwan Balkawde, Vinod Satav, Vinayak Kadam, Datta Sagare, Anil Sapkal, Anna Deshmukh, Balasaheb Khedekar, Sham Marne met Addl Municipal Commissioner Vikas Dhakne and submitted a memorandum. Dhakne facilitated a discussion between the members of the delegation and the Addl Municipal Commissioner of the concerned department, Kunal Khemnar.

Khemnar clarified that a notice about the fine had not been sent to Balan. The state government has waived off advertisement fee for Ganesh mandals during the festivals. The amount is being charged for advertisements displayed during dahi handi and Ganesh festivals. It is not a fine but an advertisement fee. A meeting would be held on Monday and a decision would be taken. Till then, the decision about levying the fee has been stayed.

Meanwhile, office-bearers said that the notice sent to Balan refers to a fine and he has been told to pay it in two days. The notice says that if the fine is not paid, an additional tax will be levied on the property. “If advertisement fee is being charged, the motive behind sending the notice to the media is suspicious. It is a routine matter and Balan has been deliberately insulted. Balan is an advertiser and the mandals have displayed advertisements in their area. Hence, it was necessary to send the notice to mandals. If illegal hoardings are put up in the city, the PMC does not consider the advertising companies as guilty and the owner of the hoardings are penalised. Hence, there are doubts about the purpose of sending the notice to the company which is advertising a product,” the office-bearers said.

“Punit Balan provided a lot of financial help when mandals were facing problems in collecting funds after the coronavirus epidemic. The mandals received a boost to celebrate the traditional Ganesh festival. A civic official is violating the order issued by the state government waiving off the advertisement fees and is behaving according to his whims and fancies. Hence, the notice issued to Balan should be taken back or an agitation would be staged against the PMC,” the office-bearers said.

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