A fortnight after the notification of Lok Sabha elections, over 27,000 cases of defacement of walls have been reported.
The Chennai district election office began work on clearing political graffiti, posters and banners after the notification of elections on March 5.
“Wall posters remain the most important challenge to preventing defacement of property,” said an election official.
More than 17,000 of the cases pertain to defacement of private and public property with posters. Around 2,000 banners and 8,000 pieces of graffiti have also been reported to the district election office so far, officials said. In the first week, political graffiti dominated the cases recorded in the district.
On March 9, as many as 1,108 cases of defacement of walls with graffiti were recorded. The number of cases involving posters was a mere 556 then.
Thereafter, posters have sprung up everywhere.
The election office has asked political parties to remove graffiti, posters and banners.
Complaints pour inThe toll-free helpline 18004257012 continues to receive complaints on illegal graffiti, posters and banners in a number of localities.
Local law does not permit defacement of private property. The EC has given instructions that it should not be resorted to, even on the pretext of having obtained the consent of the owner of the property.
But 8,896 private properties in the city have been illegally used for political campaign using posters, officials said.
