JOIN USThe hoardings dotting the city roads are mostly illegal and have been highly problematic for the public for many years. Besides unapologetically disfiguring city compounds, footpaths and other public places, they cause a whopping monetary loss to the exchequer.
Here’s a sampling of what Bengalureans from different walks of life have to say about this issue. Ashwin, HR professional, is convinced that hoardings often obstruct view of commuters. He finds them nothing more than visual pollution.
Despite repeated protests from activists and civil society members, an end to this problem is nowhere in sight. Commuters find the illegal hoardings overlapping signals, triggering traffic violations and accidents.
Meanwhile, the civic agency responsible for keeping the beauty and cleanliness of the city has been not so effective in dealing with the issue. It has already crossed the deadline that it had set to rid the city of hoardings.
Many find the BBMP complacent in acting against illegal hoardings. “The violators should be slapped with hefty fines for every flex banner. A responsive online platform should be put in place for public to report such menace,” suggests Ujwal Rajmandira, Catalogue Manager with Amazon.
The sole purpose of politicians and others is self-promotion. In order to get the attention of as many people possible to their messages, they undermine the public convenience.
Hoardings destroy the city’s aesthetic looks and make no positive impact. As counselling psychologist Shradha Hegde put it, “A banner hung at a junction just greeting people on religious festivals, usually has no message for the society.”
Generally, the hoardings are meant to help people get to know about something or someone for their good. Is this happening for real? No. The opposite is happening. Unauthorised hoardings spin out several problems for commuters each day. If society thinks hoardings are problematic and ruin the beauty of the city, then recklessly deploying hoardings is just a meaningless exercise.