Aurangabad, Aug 4:
The hoarding industry seems to have been economically affected due to Coronavirus in the past one and a half years. As a result, many agencies have started to bring down their hoardings, installed on the private properties, due to their failure in
paying its rent to the private property-holders.
There are around 650 hoardings in the AMC jurisdiction. The agencies involved in the business of hoardings had to pay rent every month to the private property owner. So far, they were paying rent from their pockets due to the pandemic situation. Now, fearing the possible third wave, the agencies have started bringing down their hoardings. More than 40 hoardings in the city have been removed; 60 hoardings in Nasik and 240 in Nagpur. This development, however, pushed the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation to sustain a loss of Rs 1.5 crore.
There are 2 lakh personnel dependent upon this hoarding industry. The dependents like persons involved in the making of flex-boards, designers, steel frame-makers, labourers installing and removing the boards etc had been affected. The majority of them have become jobless. The business is majorly due to politicians and private companies. Now, it has been collapsed. Hence many of them are thinking of removing their hoardings installed on private properties and enter into another business for survival. Hence the government should waive off the taxes, said Shaikh Habib, Saurabh Jalori and Varun Golcha.