Hinting at a nexus between officials of the BBMP and the advertisement mafia, Mayor N. Shantha Kumari came down heavily against officials for allowing publicity materials, including hoardings, banners, cut-outs, posters and buntings, to be put up illegally. She set a deadline of 15 days to remove them.
The Mayor’s diktat comes close on the heels of the letter from Upa Lokayukta to her and BBMP Commissioner M. Lakshminarayan seeking details of action taken in this regard.
At a meeting with revenue officials, she said that if they failed to remove the illegal publicity materials within the deadline, she would personally hand over the list of such officials to the Upa Lokayukta. “We will assume that the officials are hand-in-glove with the advertisement mafia.”
Ms. Shantha Kumari told reporters that the revenue officials had stressed on the need to form special squads to remove the publicity materials. “Currently, there are only three agencies for eight zones. I will direct the Commissioner and Special Commissioner to look into the possibility,” she said and added that she was contemplating a ban on publicity material in the interest of city’s aesthetics. “We will take a decision after discussing it in the council,” she added.
