The city may soon have a less crowded skyline. Thanks to a direction issued by Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson after a recent visit here, the Revenue Department is planning to take stringent measures to remove the huge, unauthorised hoardings and banners that crowd the city’s otherwise placid skyline and obstruct visibility on roads.
The hoardings are put up by private organisations as part of their massive outdoor publicity campaigns. The situation continues ignored despite the continuing warnings and even legal action by the Revenue Department. Mostly, electric and telephone posts are misused by the campaigners for fixing the publicity boards, which are rarely removed after the events. The result is the city is now crowded with many such unlawfully erected mammoth arcs and bill boards.
“Many a time, these big boards and arcs fall on the road or over vehicles especially during rainy seasons,” says Sanjith, an auto-driver on the Palayam bus stand premises.
He also says there have been incidents when half-broken boards fixed on electric and telephone posts obstruct the movement of heavy vehicles and pose a threat to passengers near the window seat.
The work to fix big campaign boards are done during the night hours, as work during the day may attract the attention of the Revenue squad.
The publicity campaigners, who pocket a huge sum for promoting the unlawful works, also use migrant labourers for the job.
Though the Anti-Defacement Squad of the Revenue Department swings into action occasionally to trace the hands behind the attempts and even impose fine, the trend remains the same. There is no effective mechanism to pull them up on the spot.
The unlawful practice, however, gets a hurried attention during election time, and dedicated teams could be seen cracking the whip.
Another challenge, along with the hoardings and bill boards, is the increasing number of sign boards put up by private institutions to advertise their name. These boards are erected to guide people to their institutes. But more than that purpose, they join the clamour of hoardings and campaign displays to reduce traffic or pedestrian visibility on city roads.
In such state of affairs, the direction by the Chief Secretary comes as a breather. The displays will be removed by the Revenue team and the advertisers will be asked to pay up for the clean-up work.
