The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s drive against defacing the city appears to have run out of steam even before it began. Posters, banners and flexi-signs have re-surfaced across the city, announcing some politician’s birthday or wishing citizens on festivals. With elections round the corner, residents are apprehensive about illegal posters marring the cityscape.
During the monthly council meeting in December 2017, Mayor R. Sampath Raj announced that the civic body would crack down on this ‘visual pollution’, going on to state that ward engineers would be held responsible for illegal posters, banners and flexes in their jurisdictions.
While Mr. Sampath Raj claimed that the civic officials had removed ‘all posters, banners and flexes’ in East, West and Mahadevapura zones on Wednesday, The Hindu found several posters, including cut-outs, in these zones.
Senior officials said that zonal commissioners had been entrusted with the responsibility of keeping a check on this menace. As most of the publicity material is printed on plastic, which is banned, officials are also cracking down on poster and flexi-sign printing units.
Mr. Samapth Raj said the BBMP is keen on following the Chennai model, which is a complete ban on printing units. “The Karnataka High Court has issued similar directions to the BBMP,” he added.
Complete ban sought
Citizens’ Action Forum president D.S. Rajashekhar said they would write to the Election Commission of India seeking a total ban on publicity material in view of the approaching elections.
Questioning the will of the BBMP to crack down on this ‘menace’, he asked if any political party had sought its permission to put up banners, posters and flexes, and if yes, the revenue collected for the same. “Political leaders, who put up these publicity material always claim that their party workers or supporters put them up. If they cannot control their own party workers, how do they expect to manage their constituency?”
