Among the six finalists in the individual category for the Hindustan Times (HT) Mumbai Awards is gynecologist and civic crusader Dr Anahita Pandole. The Awards, winners of which will be announced this month, are in recognition of individuals and organizations that have worked tirelessly and selflessly to make life in Bombay better, and Pandole’s contribution in removing the eyesore of illegal hoardings and posters from the city’s urbanscape, especially on its heritage Gothic and Victorian structures, through a sustained legal battle with the authorities has earned her a place of merit.
Dr Anahita Pandole: sustained crusade
Pandole’s crusade, which began when she saw a tree being chopped down to make place for a hoarding while she was on her way to work, is far from over, mentioned HT which profiled her in its issue of December 26, 2014. But citizens are more aware of the problem and are taking the initiative on their own to prevent the poisoning of trees with chemicals or chopping them down for billboards and have illegal hoardings taken down. The doctor first took on the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) in 2002 with senior counsel Iqbal Chagla representing her in the PIL (public interest litigation) pro bono. The Bombay High Court (BHC) had then ordered that the BMC must not allow hoardings, advertisements and billboards, unless it strictly adheres to the required provisions of the Bombay Municipal Act 1888, Motor Vehicles Act 1988 and guidelines issued by the BMC itself, failing which licences should be revoked and hoardings removed with immediate effect, HT reported.
About the resolute crusader, conservation activist Nayana Kathpalia told HT: "Anahita went about her work in a sustained legal manner. Her PIL has improved the face of this city. Someone had to force the BMC to follow its own rules.” Conservation architect Abha Narain Lambah too was appreciative: "Unlike many Bombayites who are brilliant in their own fields, she took time out from work, and went through trouble to improve the city’s visual landscape.” In October 2014 Pandole read that the BMC told the BHC that it had removed 4,800 hoardings across the city in the preceding two months. It has also filed about 100 complaints with the Bombay police about such violations. This vindication of her years of tracking the case and endless visits to the BHC are worth the outcome, Pandole told HT. "However, the BMC continues to conveniently ignore the court orders even today, as we still see hundreds of illegal hoardings that violate the norms,” she rued.