mangalore today

Illegal hoardings, notices destroy city’s beauty, safety


Mangalore Today News Network

MANGALURU: Any commercial establishment needs  But in Though civic authorities are trying to tackle the menace of too huge hoardings and signboards to advertise and draw the attention of public. The city is  going nuts literally. Too many notices, hoardings and posters are defacing public places, marring the city’s beauty and more so traffic/road safety.

With civic sense lost among the commercial crowd, the matter for the public is becoming impossible.The MCC authorities have been conducting drives from time to time to tackle this menace. Violators use anything from Mescom poles, trees, telephone junction boxes and signboards to put up the hoardings or stick posters. The major offenders are providers of employment services and PG accommodations.

A revenue official said the drives are conducted once or twice a month. He also said that  no law exists under which offenders can be penalized. It’s only during polls that we can book cases against offenders.  The best option would be to identify certain areas in the city, mostly junctions, where people can put up these hoardings.

Deputy commissioner (Revenue) Raju Mogaveera too admitted that hoardings are a huge problem.  Criminal cases under public disfigurement act can be booked. But this needs follow-up in each case. We are creating awareness among printers and the like not to disfigure by pasting posters everywhere.

He said there has also been a request to identify an open space where the posters can be put. "We are examining this request," he said. Action is not a big problem since the beneficiary is known (as it is clearly printed on posters or hand bills). We want to be proactive by involving citizens in this awareness drive he stated.