KMC sets 7-day deadline to remove Durga Puja hoardings

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has directed that all advertising hoardings put up across the city during the festive season must be removed within seven days of the end of the Durga Puja Carnival.

Officials said that if advertisers fail to comply, the civic body will take responsibility of pulling down the hoardings.

KMC’s Member, Mayor-in-Council (Advertisement) and Rashbehari MLA Debasish Kumar told the media: “The carnival will conclude on Sunday.

Thereafter, all hoardings must be removed within seven days.” He added that in case of non-compliance, the civic body itself would dismantle the structures.

The decision, however, has sparked questions within the KMC about why the civic body should bear the task instead of penalising violators. Despite the implementation of a new advertisement policy earlier this year—which introduced advertisement-free zones, restrictions on covering heritage buildings, and control over monopoly advertising—many rules were allegedly ignored during the festive season, according to opposition party councillors.

BJP councillor Sajal Ghosh told the media: “There is no record of the current TMC-led- board (KMC) acting against violators. So, we don’t expect anything different this time.”

CPI(M) councillor Madhuchhanda Deb claimed that those failing to remove hoardings should be fined, noting that public funds should not be used to cover the cost of violations.

Defending the relaxation, Debasish Kumar is learnt to have said: “During Durga Puja, business worth several thousand crores flows into the city’s economy. There’s a difference between relaxing norms and breaking them.”