Noida playschool fined ₹5 lakh for advertisements on Metro pillars

The Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) said on Wednesday that it has filed an FIR against Makoons, a pre-school located in Sector 76, for allegedly putting up advertisement posters on Metro pillars, in violation of the Corporation’s rules. The NMRC has also imposed a penalty of ₹5 lakh against the school as this is allegedly the second instance of violation on part of the school.

“We had, in December, 2018, issued a notice to this playschool for defacement of our property. The school had put up posters and banners on Metro pillars on the stretch falling between sectors 51 and 76 Metro stations on the 29.7-km Noida-Greater Noida Link. We have filed an FIR and also imposed ₹5 lakh fine against Makoons Preschool,” PD Upadhyay executive director of the NMRC, said.

Responding to this, Makoons Preschool director Sudhir Kant said, “We have apologised for our act to the police and other officials. We will not repeat this act in the future. We do not want to put up posters or banners on any public property. It was mistakenly done.”

The NMRC had applied anti-carbonation paint on the pillars to keep them safe from rust, officials said. After the defacement, a public notice had been put up on the stretch between sectors 51 and 76 to discourage people from defacing Metro property, officials added.

“We will continue taking strong legal action against offenders as we want our property to remain clean and safe. We had also issued a public advisory in newspapers appealing not to deface our property,” Upadhyay added.

The NMRC had, in December, 2018 filed FIRs against 24 firms allegedly found putting up posters and defacing the Metro property on 29.707km stretch.

“We have painted over these posters as they looked ugly. We will impose a penalty against all firms found putting banners or posters even after warnings. We may increase the penalty amount if firms or individuals are found flouting rules,” Upadhyay said.

NMRC has filed an FIR against the playschool at Sector 49 police station. “We requested police to take strong action against the offenders so that they do not indulge in defacing Metro property again,” Upadhyay said.

The NMRC started operations on the 29.707 km Noida-Greater Noida Metro Link on January 26, 2019. The NMRC has asked its staff to keep an eye to ensure such posters are not put on pillars or on other area of the Noida Metro.