An advertising joint venture firm was given the boot by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), which resulted in the attachment of their property, a massive structure on East High Court Road in Ramdaspeth, in order to recover unpaid debts of Rs. 6 crore.
A crew of civic body members affixed the Bonsai shop to the building on Tuesday. M/s Yash Advertisers and M/s Suyash Mart Pvt. Ltd. are the defaulting companies; they jointly bid for the advertising rights to 550 banner stands. This is NMC’s first significant action of the new year as it addresses the issue of private agencies’ non-fulfillment of bonds.
Milind Meshram, Deputy Commissioner, NMC, said that the firm had bid Rs 1.15 crore to bag rights for outdoor advertising in city. The JV firm had only paid Rs 37.35 lakh, the first quarterly installment
only to NMC, and guarantee money. Thereafter the firm simply forgot its commitment and did
not paid the amount despite continuous reminders from Advertising Department of NMC.
Every time the NMC sent a reminder, the representatives of firm would visit the officials and express the commitment to clear the dues and sought time to make payment. This went on for three to four times,
said Meshram and finally the NMC bosses decided to act tough and on Tuesday orders were issued to seize the property of defaulting firms. The entire building was sealed and NMC has taken it over and put its seal.
Similarly, the contract for outdoor advertising in respect of 550 banners stand were
reauctioned by NMC.
The total dues with the firm for last three-years Rs. 2,39,55,273 and along with interest the entire sum comes to nearly Rs 6 crore.