As civic body officials began stripping walls of political posters and banners, the dysfunctional toilets set up by Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on footpaths will also lose their utility as billboards.
The newly-built toilets are plastered with advertisements of ruling party TRS and its achievements. Most of them are under lock and key awaiting inauguration. Now, with the announcement of GHMC election schedule, the advertisements will have to be removed by the civic body. The ‘Compendium of Instructions’ for the GHMC elections have clear instructions about advertisements, their locations and misuse of official buildings.
“No person shall print or publish, or cause to be printed or published, any election pamphlet or poster which does not bear on its face the names and addresses of the printer and the publisher thereof,” says one of the clauses which is part of the guidelines to enforce the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for the elections.
“The compendium is a source of information for citizens so that they don’t have to put up with loud noise or posters on their walls. It even specifies the decibel level for campaigning during day and night time,” says K. Sai Teja, an activist. “With wider awareness about the rules, hopefully, we will see a streamlined campaigning,” says Mr. Teja who posted a soft copy of the document online.
Citizens who find their walls defaced by election posters can take the help of police and election officials to enforce the rules. “Disfigurement of any public or private place an offence punishable with imprisonment which may extend up to 3 months or with fine which shall not be less than one thousand rupees but which may extend up to 2,000 rupees or with both. Abetment of such disfigurement is also made punishable under Section 5 of that Act. Under section 6 thereof, the police officers are empowered to remove, erase, pull down and destroy objectionable advertisements,” says the Prevention of Disfigurement of Open Places and Prohibition of Obscene and Objectionable posters and Advertisements Act, invoked by the poll officials.
The MCC also has clear guidelines about surrogate advertisements.
