Bhubaneswar: A joint squad of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) today removed illegal hoardings and flags from various stretches across the city, including “No Hoarding Zones.
This enforcement activity, which continued till evening in the post-lunch session, collected a massive three truck loads of materials removed, which not only included flags and hoardings of various political parties, but also New Year welcome messages from organiations, institutions and political aspirants.
The joint squad in the pre-lunch session removed hoardings and flags from Sishu Bhawan to New Airport Square, New Airport to Ravindra Mandap Square, AG Square to Raj Mahal Square. During post-lunch session, it worked between Rajmahal and Master Canteen and Rajmahal to Kalpana Square area.
Sources said while around 250 small and big hoardings were removed on the first day of action for BMC this year, the enforcement activity will also continue tomorrow.
It can be mentioned here that in order to make the city skyline clean and without any illegal hoarding, BMC convened a meeting of all political parties on Saturday last, in order to have a consensus on effective implementation of hoarding regulations and policies.
Representatives of parties like Biju Janata Dal, Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress, Aam Admi Party and Communist Party of India were there along with Deputy Commissioner of Police and Additional District Magistrate, Bhubaneswar. Senior BMC officials also attended.
All political parties had promised that they would also follow the regulations strictly and never put hoardings in No Hoarding Zones. It was also decided at the meeting that BMC would bring out a simple format where individual political parties can apply before hand for putting banners or hoardings in permitted areas.
All the participants agreed that the Heritage Zone shall be declared as No Hoarding Zone for keeping the heritage values of Bhubaneswar which will be helpful in tourism and promotion of culture.
It can be mentioned here that the Old Town/Old City area, which was earlier known as Ekamra Kshetra, is also known as the Temple City of India and has a rich collection of 361 small and big shrines with unique Kalingan temple architecture and style. The monuments date back from 7th Century AD to 15th Century AD. Many old buildings would also be declared as Heritage Buildings soon and for the region a Signage Guideline has already been prepared. The guideline has received the nod from the Authority Meeting of BDA, recently.
Representatives from various political parties also requested the civic authorities to take enforcement activity against illegal display of hoardings.
As per the request of various political parties, details of permission taken by a party for putting up of hoardings shall be displayed in the BMC’s website. The data will include who has taken permission for how many days and for which location across the State Capital.
Comments are closed.