Hyderabad: Minister K.T. Rama Rao had earlier ordered the removal of all illegal political hoardings in the city, even if they had images of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar or himself. But the ruling party’s members continue to ignore the directive. The Begumpet flyover now has massive hoardings of minister Padma Rao that features TRS’s top guns. Hundreds of them have also come up in Ranigunj and Metro Rail pillars from Begumpet to Secunderabad have been wrapped with posters of TRS leaders. Most of these hoardings are linked to the forthcoming Bonalu festivities.
Massive cutouts of the Chief Minister, Mr Rama Rao himself, Nizamabad MP K. Kavitha and ministers T. Srinivas Yadav and Padma Rao on the main roads in Secunderabad, and posters and flexis have come up on buildings and along almost all lanes and bylanes. There’s even a visible poster war happening between politicians Srinivas Yadav and Padma Rao near the Ujjaini Mahankali temple — the centre of Bonalu festivities on Sunday.
Apart from this, hoardings that had been put up at the party’s offices have not been removed. Mr M. Bal Reddy of Kukatpally says: “Every other day, little-known local politicians and henchmen of corporators, mostly belonging to the TRS, put up banners and flexis on private and public properties with the sole intention of pleasing seniors. GHMC officials are afraid to remove them fearing a backlash from ministers and MLAs.”
Any occasion, be it a festival, birthday of a minister or an MLA, or a function being attended by VIPs is enough to flood the city with hoardings. The High Court itself has slammed the practice. When asked, GHMC commissioner Dr B. Janardhan Reddy said by Saturday, the corporation had taken down 4,000 banners, 8,304 cutouts, 19,146 flexis, 63,824 small posters and 122 hoardings. He added that a sum of Rs 4.9 lakh had been imposed as penalty, and that the drive would continue across the city. Besides, he said, the corporation had collected a whopping Rs 40 lakh as penalty for littering on roads, burning of garbage in open spaces, using plastic below 50 microns and open defecation.
