K M Dayashankar
KARIMNAGAR, AUGUST 26, 2024: The Municipal Corporation of Karimnagar’s drive against defacing the city appears to have run out of steam even before it began. Posters, banners, vinyl posters and hoardings have resurfaced across the entire Karimnagar town, announcing some politicians’ birthdays, wishing citizens on festivals and other business establishments also displaying their publicity through posters.
The state government has banned the use of vinyl posters to protect the environment from pollution. However, the politicians and others compete to deface the town by erecting illegal posters and hoardings and causing visual pollution. Of late, some of the circular hoardings erected by the people were posing a serious threat to the road users as the buntings were exposed to the road causing traffic snarls also and obstruction of vision for motorists and others.
Even though, the MCK authorities and district administration claim that they were cracking down on the ‘visual pollution’, it is only for namesake and nowhere any posters were removed in the town, which had become an eyesore.
Ironically, the government officials also erect posters and hoardings greeting people during the festivals and defacing the offices including the Collectorate, MCK and other offices in the town.
The political leaders, who put up illegal posters always claims that their party workers or supporters put them up, alleged Lok Satta Udyama samstha leader KS Narayana and asked Whether defacing the town with illegal posters is the Smart City?. He demanded that the authorities impose fines on the persons erecting illegal posters in various parts of the town including electric poles, traffic islands and government offices.
