BBMP begins crackdown on illegal advertisements in city

Bengaluru: The advertisements in the photographs and flexes put up by public representatives for every job they are duty bound to do will soon be put to an end.

The commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), N Manjunath Prasad has directed the officials to remove illegal advertisements and publicity materials of elected public representatives put up at bus stations and reverse osmosis plants (RO) plants.

"We have already launched the drive to remove illegal advertisements being put up at bus shelters and other places," he stated.

The civic activists have been striving hard to stop the illegal banners being put up at skywalks and traffic junctions.

"From the past few years, Lanchamukta Karnataka Nirmana VedikeVedike is striving hard to stop the nuisance of illegal advertisements but nowadays illegal advertisements are particularly seen on sky walk and RO plants.

Most of the BBMP officials at all levels have become insensitive and the puppets in the hands of Corporators and MLA's. Complaints given to the top bureaucracy are also not yielding any results.

If the BBMP Commissioner fails to take any action on his own officials on the grounds of dereliction of duty, on one hand, palike will lose revenue and on the other hand it would encourage the officials to ignore public concern," V R Marathe, state president, Lanchamukta Karnataka Nirmana Vedike.

The Karnataka Open Spaces (Prevention of Disfigurement) Act prohibits the putting up of illegal flex banners across the state but the lackadaisical approach adopted by the civic agency allowed the sprucing up of illegal advertisements.