The Coimbatore Corporation removed flex boards and hoardings in the city on Tuesday as part of a drive against those put up without permission from the authorities concerned.
Officials in the civic body said the special demolition squad, constituted to demolish unauthorised buildings and encroachments, was carrying out the task of removing the hoardings also.
An official said the Corporation was upset at the resistance to the enforcement of rules governing the display of hoardings. The hoardings were put up again by private companies or advertisers at the very place from where they were removed.
The removal was done to send a clear warning against unauthorised hoardings. But, this was not being taken seriously. The return of the hoardings was a pointer to the resistance to the enforcement of rules, the official said.
The District Collector (who is the licensing authority) and the City Police Commissioner had clearly asked advertisers not to put up unauthorised hoardings. The Corporation Commissioner too had issued orders to crack down on such hoardings/flex boards. Following this, the special squad had so far removed about 100 unauthorised hoardings from areas near the North Coimbatore Flyover and Avanashi Flyover and also at Gandhipuram, Lakshmi Mills Junction (on Avanashi Road) and Saibaba Temple (Mettupalayam Road). All these were heavy traffic zones and hoardings that violated rules distracted the attention of drivers.
In some places, the Corporation had removed the scaffolding also, in order to prevent the hoardings from being put up again. The civic body's drive would continue. A close watch was being kept on locations where the hoardings had already been removed, in order to prevent these from being put up again.
