KOLKATA: In a major stride towards prevention of visual pollution, Kolkata Municipal Corporation has taken a tough stand against hoardings or flexes put up by different political parties in the city.
"Political parties often put up hoardings related to their programmes here and there in the city and shy away from the responsibility of pulling it down even after the end of that particular event. We will allow three days time and if we find that still they have not removed the same, we will do the needful and levy a charge on the concerned political party," Mayor Firhad Hakim said on Wednesday.
KMC is coming up with coding system for effective tracking of advertisement hoardings and putting a leash on illegal advertisements mushrooming indiscriminately . "We will not allow any hoarding in the city without our approval. We are coming up with a hoarding policy with the aim to curb illegal advertisements and visual pollution and an entity be it government or private will have to put up hoardings in adherence to this policy," Hakim added.
It is mandatory to take the nod of KMC for installing any advertisement hoardings in the city, but due to some legal complexities in the rules, a number of companies would illegally put up advertisements depriving the civic body of its revenue share.
"We are coming up with an amendment in this issue which will curb such illegal practice and will empower us to take strong measures against illegal advertisements. The amendment has already been sent to the state Assembly for its necessary approval," a senior official of KMC's Advertisement department said.