As Mysuru eagerly awaits the announcement of new rankings under the Swachh Bharat Mission, a buoyant Mysuru City Corporation has stepped up its anti-defacement campaign to boost the city’s splendour ahead of the much-awaited results.
The corporation is hopeful of bagging the cleanest city tag for the third year in a row.
Flex printing units are now facing the heat after the corporation cracked down on them in its bid to make Mysuru a “flex-free” city. Two such units were raided on Thursday. The officials confiscated a large quantity of flex rolls (used for printing advertising material) stocked for printing posters, banners, and other forms of publicity material.
The corporation earlier used to carry out the drive of clearing flex material put up across the city. Henceforth, they will target the printers to stifle the source.
A team of corporation officials raided the two units and slapped a penalty of ₹5,000 each besides warning them against printing flex material in future. “We have warned them of locking up their units if they continue to run the business ignoring our warning. Mysuru is gradually becoming a flex-free city, barring some areas, which are being tackled. Come what may, disfigurement will be tackled austerely,” MCC Health Officer Dr. D.G. Nagaraj told The Hindu .
He said flex material are a big nuisance since they are non-degradable and most often block stormwater drains and underground drainage lines.
This is perhaps for the first time that flex printing units have been targeted to send out a strong message against defacement of the city.
Sources told The Hindu that the government had given a freehand to the corporation to go ahead with its plan of making Mysuru a flex-free city by carrying out some “tough” tasks.
But, the question is whether traders will put an end to flex business after the raids since returns from the business was said to be very “attractive”. Moreover, flex is low-priced compared to other publicity material and therefore is most sought-after, an official said.
Also, it has to be seen whether the corporation will act tough when supporters of political parties and elected representatives put up huge and bulky flex material for their leaders.
