Thiruvananthapuram: Vellayambalam Junction is speckled with billboards and posters, mocking Thiruvananthapuram Corporation’s norms to ensure an ad-free road between Kowdiar and Museum Junction.
This is just one of the many norms related to advertisements that have been violated in the city. For example, the Corporation had insisted that every flexboard should have printed the name of the agency which made it. But a casual walk around the city would reveal that this is flouted.
This little rule, if followed, would help make the city greener. For, this would ensure more accountability among billboard agencies to choose recyclable polyethene flexboards over those made with PVC.
“Polythene is recyclable, but there has to be a mechanism to ensure it is actually recycled. So, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) should be extended to billboards. Hoarding is a manufactured product, and the manufacturer, the agency which prints it, should be made responsible for recycling it,” said Manoj C N, founder, Pelican Foundation.
The Corporation auctions its hoarding space to agencies which are bound to follow all the norms. When a violation is brought to the notice of the authorities, they should be taking action against the violators.
However, on Wednesday, when BJP councillor M. Lakshmi had complained about a violation of advertising norms in her ward, neither mayor V K Prasanth nor deputy mayor Rakhi Ravikumar had offered a reply. In Lakshmi’s ward, pole boards were fixed on electric posts, hiding the post numbers.
A problem arose when streetlights were not working and Lakshmi had to relay the number to the concerned official. “It is not possible for us to climb an electric post, move the board and then look for the number, is it? Even as the Corporation issues licenses to someone who promises to stick to the norms, is anyone checking the hoardings to see if all the norms have been followed?” she said.
The revenue wing has earlier conducted drives to pull down illegal hoardings, but none recently. When asked about the Vellayambalam violation, the deputy mayor said, “Revenue officials are trying their best. It is not on purpose.” She also said that the licenses of hoarding spaces are renewed annually, indicating there will be a review.
