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Defacing of public spaces
Written By murali772 - 5 January, 2012
Bangalore BBMP law and order Hoardings Citizen Reports environment defacing
This is the BBMP park adjoining the Indiranagar Club. Its verdant greenery is a most pleasant sight for the urban dwellers' eyes, otherwise battered by the sights of the concrete jungles all around. Over the last week, however, it has got marred by this huge hoarding put up by the local MLA, supposedly conveying season's greetings to the people.
Well, Sir, I for one can do without the defacing of our public spaces, however beloved a neta you may be. Defacing of road junctions with such hoardings is bad enough. Defacing of parks is not acceptable at all. Please find some better way of greeting people, or conveying your messages.
Muralidhar Rao
COMMENTS
murali772 - 8 January, 2012 - 09:26
Hoardings by various organizations and individuals on birthday greetings, condolences, festival greetings and other posters put up without permission are messing up the cityscape and should be removed, the commissioner instructed his officers.
It is a punishable offence and those who put them up will be dealt with under the Karnataka Open Places (Prevention of Disfiguration) Act, he stated.
For the full report in the ToI, click here.
OK - it's a punishable offence! I didn't know that.
Well, two positive developments have taken place since my posting the blog - 1) The Commissioner came out with this directive. 2) The specific hoarding has been removed. Would it then be correct to believe that officials are already beginning to act on the CM's directive to respond to media reports - perhaps, even Social media reports (check this)?
What can the neta do if the well-wishers - - - :)))
murali772 - 11 January, 2012 - 12:15
On seeing this post, a member of the SaveKoramangala YahooGroup sent a message to the local MLA, Mr Ramalinga Reddy, stating that putting up hoardings were illegal, and that the Commissioner had ordered their removal. Mr Reddy readily responded saying he was instructing the local BBMP engineer to have them removed in Koramangala. This morning however, I found enough of them at the Maharaja junction.
While that's the position in Koramangala, neighbouring Domlur, Trinity junction (M G road) area, etc, are supposedly celebrating the Shantinagar MLA, Mr Haris's birthday. Huge hoardings are to be seen all over. Well, what can a neta do if his well-wishers insist on announcing to the world his birthday, right?
While BBMP is removing the illegal hoardings, banners etc., who is to remove the hoardings encouraged by BBMP themselves by encroaching the foot paths at hundreds of locations and putting up so-called 'bus shelters' where no buses ever stop or commuters take 'shelter', but filled with advertisement hoardings without leaving any space for even the name of the bus stop?
K.V.Pathy
murali772 - 18 January, 2012 - 13:37
Select excerpts from postings on savekoramangala-yahoogroup, illustrating the activism triggered by my posting of a link there to this blog:
A) Honestly this has become a nuisance and eye sore! These posters are also all over Koramangala. I have spoken to the MLA regarding this and he basically just shrugged it away.
On seeing my 2nd post stating that the BBMP Commissioner has issued an order asking the hoardings to be removed:
B) Why not each of us reading this mail take charge of followup on one hoarding removal? one junction? residents from that area register in diff forums highlighted below.
I suggest we register our complaints with :
The environment Engg BBMP Savitri 95387 54096
With traffic police (SI) 9480801822
With BBMP citizens grievances helpline -22660000
Register and take a docket no and follow up. Then see what happens.....
A) FYI - MLA has ordered EE (BTM) and AE (Kormangala) to remove all hoardings by tomorrow.
B) Maybe a good idea for him to put his volunteers on job who put hoardings up to bring them down too.
C) Mr. Reddy's orders have obviously not been heard/ followed: the - - - galleries are still very much up wherever I've gone in the past couple of days. In fact a huge new (purple) one, featuring a much larger than life image of him, has come up this week in Adugodi.
Another elected representative, presumably of the Shanthinagar constituency, can be found grinning, surrounded by admiring wannabes, on massive hoardings that are plastered all over the place from the cemeteries on Hosur Road onwards, with even lamp-posts not spared.
Tomorrow I'll try registering complaints about the hoardings at the Maharaja intersection, to begin with, using the contacts provided.
A) Yes several hoardings are still up - but several have been removed as well. I spoke to the AE and he says the ones wishing "Happy Shankranti" will be removed after the festival! I kept asking him why and he would not give a straight answer! I have informed MLA of this and I am sure that the hoardings will be removed by next week - otherwise I request everyone on this email group to call and complain. Imagine what that can do!
Exemplary activism, though apparently not enough to make much of an impact on the thick-skinned neta's, I guess.
Prakash Venkat - 6 January, 2012 - 04:42
This "FLEX" culture is a virus and in Bangalore whereever you go from every street corner a bunch of menacing looking netas stare at you.It is high time the BBMP restricts this ugly culture and provide some maidan for this magnos to display their pretty(?) faces.
In Madurai (T.Nadu) "Amma" has banned flexes in public places with out corporation permission as things became a public hazard.People started putting up Flex banners for birthdays of family members, funerals etc etc.,Before we reach that stage ..........please wake up
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