Make politicians pay for illegal banners

The Dahisar-DN Nagar Metro pillars were only recently wiped clean of posters following a report in this paper

Illegal banners are like the proverbial bad penny; they keep turning up. The Dahisar-DN Nagar Metro pillars were only recently wiped clean of posters following a report in this paper. That effect was short-lived though, as the adverts have resurfaced already on the pillars along the Kandivli-Borivli stretch.

Ganeshotsav is nearly over, but the festive season has only just begun, and you can bet that the city will see a huge number of posters dotting the city, with every small and big politician smiling beatifically at irked citizens, wishing them a happy this and a happy that.

It is shocking that our own representatives flout rules when it comes to illegal posters. So much has been said and written in the past about how these netas are defiling the space for free publicity, while companies have to pay in lakhs for hoardings. Let us find a solution to this illegal menace wallpapered all over Mumbai. Why not use the thousands of CCTV cameras in the city to identify who is pasting these unsightly posters all over Mumbai? The police should be tasked with finding and punishing each of these culprits. Levy a hefty fine, make them pay heavily for illegal advertisements.

Leaders of political parties can no longer hide behind ignorance, claiming that they do not know what their followers are doing or how the hoardings crept up. There should be strict diktats within political parties forbidding such posters. If anything, these banners are counterproductive for politicians, because they defile the city and citizens become scornful of the real intentions behind the 'best wishes' offered on the posters.

It is also ironical that the ruling party is driving the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan on one hand, and on the other, thinks nothing about pasting illegal posters on pillars. There is nothing swachch about this.

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