HYDERABAD: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has decided to seal the entire building housing the supermarket at I.S. Sadan -- from where a signboard crashed due to Thursday afternoon's wind killing one person -- for violating the land use pattern.

Additional Commissioner (Planning & Projects) K. Dhananjaya Reddy said that the decision was taken on grounds of public safety as permission for the complex was taken for a residential purpose, but the entire building had commercial activity.

Mr. Reddy said the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWSSB) and the Central Power Distribution Company Limited will also be sounded about cutting off water and power supplies.

The supermarket is also being served with notices to find out whether it has taken relevant licences and permissions.

No regulation

There was no regulation or check on all big commercial signboards (different from hoardings) and they could be up to a lakh, admit officials.

Additional Commissioner (Advertisements) N.V.S. Reddy said though it was almost an "impossible task", GHMC was making efforts to streamline the activity by taking a count of all such signboards and bring them under the advertisement tax net.

GHMC had also appointed a private agency for the purpose and it had already started the exercise of enumeration and fee collection. Of course, the agency does not have the mandate of looking into the structural stability of the signboards.

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