Political publicity robs Bangalore of its beauty

BANGALORE: The overnight pasting of posters, banners and other publicity material by various elected BBMP corporators to wish the public during festivals, has in turn ruined the beauty of the city. Bangalore, which used to be synonymous with parks, lakes and free of garbage, has suffered a big dent.Ironically, the elected representatives cutting across the party lines, who speak about beautifying the city, feel a constant desire to be seen in public. This has lead to defacement of the public property. The walls, metro pillars and even few public transport have been plastered with posters, hence snatching the beauty of the city. The corporators may refuse to admit, but their faces on the posters and flex boards all over public places, stands evident of their apathy.The BBMP Commissioner M K Shankarlinge Gowda said, “In a city like Kolkota, we can penalise whoever indulges in defacing public property, walls, fences and pillars coming under the civic body’s purview . We can probably convene a meeting in this regard,” said M K Shankarlinge Gowda.Deputy Mayor, S Harish agreed that, elected representatives are involved in putting posters and flex boards on public properties, for one or the other occasion. “We will take this matter seriously and a case can be filed against whoever is engaging in such activities and the person is liable for punishment upto three years. People pay us, when they use our property to market their product or to gain publicity. We have dispatched a team of BBMP workers to remove unauthorised publicity materials from our property. Unfortunately, in most cases our corporators are involved in the violations.”Opposition leader in the BBMP council M Udayshankar, took potshots against the ruling BJP for not being able to contain this menace and said, “We have issued a guideline to not disfigure any BBMP property. But, in some cases our supporters do it without our knowledge.”