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Defacing of public spaces

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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

Defacing

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

PRAJA effect?

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?

HOARDINGS

pathykv - 11 January, 2012 - 17:01

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

exemplary activism, but - - -

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.

And public spaces in Ahmedabad

amitc - 14 February, 2012 - 10:27

Has anyone been following the first riverfront project in India: the Sabarmati riverfront? The following link has some amazing pictures, videos (HD) and status updates.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1107117&page=10

If hot, dry and dusty Ahmedabad can be changed, can we even begin to wonder what something like this can do in Bangalore? Creating such clean, aesthetic public spaces go a long way in setting the quality of life for families in cities.

And while, we have been trying to restore our lakes, maintain our parks, what seems to be missing is this comprehensive view of the city, strength of public leaders to stand up for public spaces (in fact reclaiming them) and not let money / greed rule.

How do we initiate something like this in Bangalore? Is there something on the drawing board already that we can push?

5 thousand posters down, but very few cases filed

dvsquare - 8 October, 2012 - 10:58

From Today's TOI - 5 thousand posters down, but very few cases filed

Whatever they say, I don't see any difference in the city, all the signals, public places, parks have been beautified with such king size posters, the scene is the same.

It would make a lot of difference, if courts asks citizens to give the proof of all such posters and then police has to take the action, right now BBMP is doing nothing on this issue. All the public places are right now spammed with neta's posters celebrating ganesh chaturthi still. Soon, they will be celebrating dasara and bakri-eid, diwali, christmas.

Deepak

Citi being ugli-fied by some posters in kmangala, Ejipura,ST Bed

dvsquare - 23 October, 2012 - 08:10

The whole of koramangala, ST Bed, Ejipura is being ugli-fied by the another set of posters as I have attached 2 below.

I don't know, whose ugly face is there on the poster, but I am sure they are making the city ugly. Whom to report about these illegal hoardings/posters, despite the order from the High Court again and again.

And, the fun part is ... read what is written on the poster -

"Sweet Movements Forever"

This one is from Nirguna Mandir Entrace road.

This one is from Ejipura signal.

There are such many more, another one near the ejipura signal, a few at St. John's hospital signal, a few at Maharaja junctions and many many more.

Deepak

Raised 3 complaints on ichangemycity

dvsquare - 23 October, 2012 - 08:42

Raised 3 complaints on ichangemycity.com

Request Praja people also to go there and click "yes I am affected" on all 3 complaints.

 

Your Complaint ID is: W01144653
You can access your complaint here:
http://www.ichangemycity.com/complaint/illegal_hoardings_ejipura_signal

 

Your Complaint ID is: W01514654
You can access your complaint here:
http://www.ichangemycity.com/complaint/illegal_hoardings_st_bed_entrace

 

Your Complaint ID is: W01514655
You can access your complaint here:
http://www.ichangemycity.com/complaint/illegal_hoardings_st_johns_signal_koramangala

anybody got the message?

murali772 - 26 October, 2012 - 11:58

Well, here he is again, rather three of him (with his strange message of "sweet movements forever"), at the Kamal Bakery junction, blessed by the Congress big-wigs including the local MLA.

Now, city is ugli-fied by id celebration posters by policians

dvsquare - 27 October, 2012 - 13:59

They are not really id wishing posters, they are mostly politicians photos/posters, they are just taking advantage of some or the other festival to be visible on the illegal hoardings/posters all across the city.

The whole of jayanagar was looking very ugly because of all these politician's illegal posters.

Deepak

You know how this will become

idontspam - 28 October, 2012 - 02:04

You know how this will become habit that will slowly sought to be legalized? by the authorities ignoring & hoping the practice will somehow go away by itself. This is how all bad habits are formed.

Domlur Corporator Geetha Srinivas Reddy ugly-fying city

dvsquare - 29 November, 2012 - 08:05

This photo shows, how Domlur corporator and her cronies are ugly-fying the city, with her birthday greetings and related posters -

 

If the corporator also do the same, how will they be able to be the examples for the city to lead it.

 

Deepak

Logged a complaint on ichangemycity

dvsquare - 29 November, 2012 - 08:18

Logged complaint on ichangemycity -

http://www.ichangemycity.com/complaint/domlur_corporator_geetha_illegal_poster_bday

 

Login and say " I am affected" on this site.

 

Deepak

Corporator Celebrating her Birthday :)

Vasanth - 29 November, 2012 - 11:22

If the corporator is celebrating her Birthday in a much more glorified way than a marriage, how much she might have hard earned it to spend it this way.

cost of flex printing..

srinidhi - 30 November, 2012 - 17:08

Why the politicos use flex so much and also the  death of a good 'friend' get a smaller banner at the street corner..?

Answer lies in the cost of flex printing..its amazing how technology has made advertising cheap..I was at an adevertising person who has a big flex printer..he said the cost is just Rs 10 per sqft!

This is why there is so many flex banners everywhere around!

Like they have taxed cigarettes so much to discourage its use..govt must impose 2000% tax on flex printing and only then will its missuse come down!

other costs, and all included

silkboard - 30 November, 2012 - 17:55

Cost of putting them up is what matters more. Earlier these things used to be put up at nights, now happens in day light. And you can see that it takes about 3-4 people, and an ace/ape type vehicle.

3 people @ (may be) 400 Rs / day = 1200. Small vehicle for a day appx 600. Some wire/ropes, wood for the frame = what, like 500 rs max. assuming 50 boards to put up (in a day, each hour you put up about 5-6), and each board to be 2x4 = 8 sqft x rs 10/sqft =  Rs 80. for 50 boards,  80x50 = Rs 4000.

So, for a party to put up your boards for a day, total is about 7000 Rs. If you send out 4 parties to cover 3-4 km worth of roads, cost would be max Rs 30000.

Sounds cheap, isn't it, if no money has to be paid to BBMP etc for the space :)

Can we put up such boards for Namma Railu campaign?

kbsyed61 - 30 November, 2012 - 19:40

30K for 50 Boards is not a bad investment to be made for 'Namma Railu' campaign.

 

Wish, citizens can give proof of illegal posters in court

dvsquare - 2 December, 2012 - 07:22

And when the hearing happens in the court, only a few instances of illegal hoardings of a few institutions being shown by the bbmp, and also being told to the court that, these institutes have been penalised for the illegal hoardings, there was not a single name of these politicians's ugly posters making the city ugly.

I wish, the Judge can let public give the proofs of all these hoardings (illegal) and then make govt/bbmp work.

Deepak

Citizens need to take action

Bangalore is Mine - 11 January, 2013 - 06:24

Its time to stop talking about law enforcements (governmment and police) What about citizens? why aren't we equipped to take direct action where clear violation of law is happening? why should cops intervene for everything.

Frankly, the number of citizens versus cops is outnumbered and this will not change in the future.  The only way to curb growing violations like illegal hoarding is to have community action groups taking direct actions on these violations. 

For example, what stops us from having our own illegal hoarding which loudly says (something like): "Happy chunnu, munnu, hapy birthday, hapy new year, happy id, happy diwali, happy christmas, happy pongal' showcas e a picture of an animal and boldly underline : "This is an illegal hoarding like thousands around the city. They deface the city and restrict traffic moment. They are illegal as per section 110 of the High court. Request authorities to pull them down or citizen to remove the same'

These hoarding can be placed in specific junctions and can be in English and Kannada

We need to be innovative and vigilant to challange such growing violations

Great Suggestion - humiliation will make them listen and act

dvsquare - 11 January, 2013 - 06:35

Hi,

I am totally in your support for this suggestion.

Lets make this happen on the streets, may be let us start from Ejipura, Koramangala 1st Block and sony world junction.

This will atleast make general public know about illegal hoardings that these are illegal like many thousands in the city, and also, help these politicians and their cronies to lessen this illegal work.

Meanwhile, lets try to find out how much these hoarding will cost us, and secondly, how to take help from workers who will put up these hoarding without people knowing who did this.

Deepak

Flex-board pictures as profile updates, a la facebook

murali772 - 2 September, 2014 - 11:25

As somebody who has participated in all of the Cycle Day events held so far (every last Sunday of the month), I was kind of bugged when the organisers informed that they had been asked, by the powers that be, to cancel the event this past Sunday (31st Aug), at the very last minute. The reason given was that a major road in Indiranagar, close to where the Cycle Day event was to be held, was being renamed the very same morning at a high profile event. 
 
I then became curious as to which of the roads was being renamed, and after whom. Names like U R Ananthamurthy flashed past my mind, thinking that the Congress government was perhaps not averse to using even the passing away of the literary doyen to score a point over BJP, for whom the doyen had a dislike. 
 
But, surprise of surprises, it turns out that the "Indiranagar 100 ft road" (which some identify as Bangalore's answer to London's Oxford Street) is to be named after a "poet and folklorist - S K Kareem Khan". Having lived in the city for most of my life, I have heard of many a noted literary figures, like KuVemPu, PuThiNa, Bendre, Karanth, and even a Vakkom Mohamed Basheer, who, even with being a Malayali, was recently accorded some kind of a a recognition by Karnataka. But, this is the first time I am hearing of S K Kareem Khan. Well, no harm in getting educated a bit more on these matters, I guess.
 
But, what stares you in the face, on a drive through the road, are the flex-board pictures of the Shantinagar MLA, Mr N A Harris, far more prominently than those of the CM, or the venerated poet even. And, they were there in all sizes and shapes along the entire length and width of the road. The MLA rarely misses an opportunity to put up such flex-board horadings, whatever the occasion - whether it's his birthday (supposedly put up by his innumerable admirers, of course), some Congress VIP visiting town, Republic day, Independence day, Rajyotsava day - you name it, the flex-boards are there, conveying his greetings to his beloved people. Flex-board pictures for him are almost like facebook profiles, to be updated periodically as his popularity increases. But, unfortunately for him, the High Court has come with a ruling disallowing these. So, he comes up with a way to getting around the rule, and that's where the venerated poet comes in. And, perhaps Siddaramaiah avaru chose to lend a helping hand in the hope of garnering some bit of minority (with a name like Harris, he is a member of the Muslim community) support in Congress's internal politics.
 
There are many roads all over the city that have been renamed for all kinds of reasons, other than genuine public sentiment. But, even with a BBMP board, installed somewhere along the stretch at the time of the renaming function, rarely do people (including the local postman) refer to them by these names. Just a tamasha for most; and a profile update for namma neta avaru.
 

Hoardings

pathykv - 2 September, 2014 - 12:02

Another thing they do is the space in the bus shelters, meant for information like name of the bus stop, bus routes numbers and timings etc. are entirely encroached for publicity of the politicians like MLAs, Corporators etc. Otherwise the spaces are filled with advertisements.

K.V.Pathy

Will this stop the narcissism?

murali772 - 19 September, 2014 - 11:53

BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana and City Police Commissioner M N Reddi held a meeting on Thursday on removing illegal hoardings. Lakshminarayana has urged Reddi to issue a circular to all police stations to book cases of illegal hoardings under the Act.
 
For the full text of the report in the New Indian Express, click here.
 
I am not sure even this is going to stop many of our neta's who seem to have developed narcistic tendencies along with acquiring power. Whatever, it could be a deterrent. We'll have to wait and see how things pans out.
 

i just want to know how the

nadeem_khan - 14 November, 2014 - 16:12

i just want to know how the politics will be working in this politics of ministers

i mean now anyone can frame anyone by silently putting up posters of their opposition and frame them and drag them into legal charges against them ?

how will the police and bbmp take action in such case unless they dont know who exactly put them up (huge banners and hoardings)

this is the way the bbmp and police are helpless in catching the actual culprit

 

anybody wants to swallow this?

murali772 - 20 January, 2015 - 18:18

@ Nadeem Khan - you want us to believe that the MLA has no hand in this, and it is his adversaries who are doing it to frame him? Really, you do?

it's our flex-hero's birthday; do wish him

murali772 - 20 January, 2015 - 18:33

Siddaramaiah, speaking to reporters after conducting a review meeting with BBMP officials on Monday, said illegal flexes, banners and other boards were a menace. “The High Court as well as Lokayukta had objected to the same. Even B.PAC has done so recently. We have decided to completely ban these boards. Only advertisement hoardings which have sought permission from the BBMP can be used,” he said. A notification in this regard will be issued soon, he said. The CM said he has directed BBMP to take action not just against those who put up such hoardings, but against those who print them as well. “No one should use my photograph too,” he said
 
For the full text of the report in the New Indian Express, click here. 
 
All very fine. Will it however stop our Flex-hero (seen in the picture above, inviting his admirers to wish him, on his birthday) ? Or, his chaela's; or, if you want to go by Mr Ndeem Khan's submission, the flex-hero's adversaries?
 

i never meant politicians are innocent

nadeem_khan - 20 January, 2015 - 18:51

@murali772

i never meant politicians are innocent

i just showed a point of view

it is possible that some may do such mischievious activities

and thus the normal corrupt politicians get an excuse saying we never did so and so; it was done by our enemy or in most normal case they say by our followers............

there should be some changes in the law 

 

 

BUS SHELTER HOARDINGS

pathykv - 22 January, 2015 - 06:29

While renovating old bus shelters or erecting new ones, MLA's, MP's and corporators are writing that these are 'donated' by them and are using the entire space for advrtising their own names. No proper information required by the bus commuters such as bus route numbers, destinations, timings etc are shown as no space is left for even the bus stop names.  Are these not to be treated as illegal hoardigs and done away with?

K.V.Pathy

powerful mafia involved

murali772 - 16 April, 2016 - 14:26

Is BBMP’s special commissioner (welfare), V. Rashmi Mahesh paying the price for backing locals in removing illegal hoardings in the Mahadevapura zone?

The officer, who has been absent for a few weeks now from work, was allegedly told to back off when she became a little too supportive of the people complaining about illegal hoardings in Bellandur, especially the ones defacing the lake area. Locals say the officer was very receptive when they approached her for help on the issue.

- - - Enthused by her support, the people of the area even developed an app to help them take pictures of illegal hoardings and identify them through geo-tagging the geographical area around them.

“The aim of the app was to find out how many illegal hoardings  there are in the Mahadevapura zone,” they explained. But just when they thought they were close to being successful in removing all the illegal hoardings, things began to go wrong.

“Three days after Rashmi aggressively launched the hoardings removal drive, things slowed down. On checking ,we were told she had been asked not to get involved. Other officials took over and failed to respond to us. Eventually, the drive took a backseat,” added one area activist, blaming the hoardings mafia for having its way.

For the full text of the report (emphasis added by me) in the Deccan Chronicle, click here.

So, this is the second senior officer being shunted out by the hoardings mafia, in the recent past, the first being Mr K Mathai (check here). Well, what do you expect when the scale of the loot is of the order of 90% of the market size of Rs 2,000 cr? Obviously it's very powerful mafia behind it, and many in the government are involved too.

Incidentally, Rashmi is the same officer who, as the Director General, Administrative Training Institute (ATI) at Mysore, exposed the Rs 60 crores scam involving her predecessor, senior IAS officer Dr Amita Prasad - check here. Interestingly, inspite of the serious charges against her, Dr Amita Prasad today occupies the position of Joint Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Delhi, far away from local newshounds, who may want to ask her some questions.

Such is namma Kar-nataka. What else do you expect when the CM himself is caught with his pants down trying to promote the vested interests of his son - check this report in the ToI on the Pradhan Mantri Swastha Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) hospital case.

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