Following a rap on the knuckles by the Madras High Court for not removing illegal hoardings, arches and banners, the Coimbatore Corporation began removing hoardings, arches and other display structures that affected flow of vehicles and movement of pedestrians on city streets.
DMK MLA N. Karthik, who had moved the court in this regard, said while the civic body had taken some action, it was not enough and that more hoardings had sprung up in the city on Friday.
The Court had on Thursday directed the district administration, Coimbatore City Police Commissioner, Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner and other officers to ensure that “all arches, display boards, hoardings, placards and banners with poles or frames, etc., fixed to and/or dug into the ground, which abut into highways, public streets and pedestrian pavements shall forthwith be removed.”
It also said, “no poles or frames or structures for arches, boards, placards, hoardings, display boards or banners shall be erected on any highway, public road, public passage or pedestrian pathway or pavement.”
Based on the order, the Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan on Friday directed officials to remove all hoardings, advertisement boards in the city and report the action taken to him.
Meanwhile, a delegation of DMK advocates led by P.R. Arulmozhi urged the District Collector, police and Corporation Commissioner to immediately initiate action based on the court order.
Corporation officials said they had removed “several” such structures on Avinashi Road, Trichy Road, Mettupalayam Road, Nanjappa Road, Sowripalayam Road, NSR Road, Big Bazaar Street, Sathyamangalam Road and other parts of the city. They said the officials on the field could have removed 10 to 15 banners at each of the aforementioned places.
They said they were yet to get the exact number of structures removed.
Mr. Karthik said on Friday evening that the Corporation seemed to have done very little because there were many structures that were yet to be removed and even as the officials claimed to be removing those, new ones were coming up. He would provide the exact number of structures that were yet to be removed on Saturday and make it public as well.
