Banners continue to fly high

Banners and cutouts continue to be erected across the state, even as there remains no dearth of rules and court directions to regulate the installation of hoardings and banners in Tamil Nadu. 

A ban also exists on unlicensed digital hoardings and banners. But notwithstanding this, the illegal banner menace had gone so much out of hand that the Madras High Court in a recent order had banned the use of pictures of living persons on banners, flex boards, sign-boards across the state. But despite such measures, nothing much has changed.

While the recent order of Justice S Vaidyanathan, banning the use of live persons on banners has kicked up a row, with it being dubbed as utterly impractical, the Corporation was the first to oppose it. Describing the orders as highly ‘erroneous’, it said the order was against the Constitutional right of an individual as it restricted advertisement and its contents.Advocate General Vijay Narayan, appearing for the government,argued as to how an advertisement could contain only pictures of persons who are not alive.

However, the division bench, comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice N Seshasayee,livid with the fact that the courts earlier orders passed since 2011 on regulating hoardings were yet to be implemented in letter and spirit, refused to stay the order. They held that, “When the courts are made to wait for years for the authorities to implement rules regarding erection of digital banners, the government can wait for two more days to get any relief even though the single judge order might be erroneous.”

Interestingly, even as this case was being heard, social activist Traffic Ramaswamy, who has as many as 200 petitions on illegal banners to his credit, moved another plea on the gross misuse of power in installing thousands of hoardings along the highway to Tiruchy, for the MGR Centenary celebration.

Although the government claimed that they had granted permission for around 220 hoardings, Ramaswamy, on providing photographic evidence, submitted that thousands of hoardings had been installed and that too in a government function. The bench, on taking strong exception to such illegality transpiring under the very nose of the government, directed the removal of all hoardings including the permitted ones, within 24 hours. In fact, the then Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul coming down heavily on the Government on several occasions for its gross neglect in eradicating the rampant cutout and poster menace, paved way for the creation of a monitoring committee headed by former HC judge Justice S Rajeswaran to keep a tab on illegal hoardings.

The committee since then has been insisting that all heads of government departments, district collectors, commissioners of police and superintendents of police should comply with the HC orders on regulating hoardings and digital banners, and every step should be taken to remove as well as prevent erection of unauthorised flex boards, hoardings and digital banners. Also, police stations should take criminal action against those who violate the orders.

But contrary to expectations, the committee has remained ineffective with practically nil cooperation for the Government. It is said that the administration even fails to have proper statistics on the number of permitted hoardings. Only when a court order is issued the said illegal hoardings are pulled down and that too a day before the court hearing. But all of them would return in just a few days making a mockery of the court direction.

Traffic Ramaswamy on lamenting that he is clueless about the ways to get the Government to act on this menace, said, “Lack of stringent action against the offenders continue to be at the root of this grave issue. Despite several court triggered guidelines, on installation of hoardings in place, none of it gets implemented. 

Political bosses play truant, resulting in the executive and police towing their line. Even the courts fail to hit the last nail on the coffin, despite taking cognisance of the illegality. All this has led to shoddy implementation of the rule. A number of contempt petitions have been filed, but none of them have resulted in stringent action other than a mere warning.”

While it is the political parties and their leaders who refuse to give up on this uncanny culture of installing banner and hoardings at will, thinking that such banners alone offer them publicity and votes, for the volunteers it turns out to be a belief that bigger the hoarding on their leader, better will be the reward. For now, there seems to be no end in sight to such huge hoardings filling up the roadsides and the skyline of Tamil Nadu.