The Calcutta Municipal Corporation will on its own take down the Puja banners and flexes that have not been removed despite multiple prods and at least one formal notice, mayor Firhad Hakim said on Friday.
The CMC will also send individual notices to the agencies and companies who had put up the adverts, Hakim said.
“The deadline to remove the ads has passed. We will now remove the ads and start sending a notice to the concerned agency or the company whose ad features in the banners,” Hakim said.
He was responding to reporters who asked about the Durga Puja publicity materials that were still hogging road space in many parts of the city.
On Tuesday, the Calcutta Municipal Corporation sent a notice to all advertisers, outdoor advertising agencies and Durga Puja organisers asking them to remove by Thursday all the banners and flexes.
The Tuesday notice, issued by the CMC commissioner, mentioned that the banners and flexes were still looming over roads and pavements long after the Pujas. It threatened a penalty against the agencies if the flexes were not removed by Thursday.
“All the advertisers and advertising agencies are hereby informed that some temporary banners/cut-outs/flexes put up during the Durga Puja-2023 are still being displayed though Durga Puja-2023 is over,” the notice said.
The notice, however, did not fix a deadline for the removal of the bamboo frames that still block roads and pavements.
On Friday, the mayor addressed that issue as well.
“In many places, the ads have been removed. But the bamboo frames remain. I am requesting all to remove the bamboo frames and the remains of the pandals,” he said after the Talk To Mayor session.
It has been more than a week since Dashami (October 24). Offices and schools have reopened but the banners and the bamboo frames on which the banners were hung still occupy a portion of the roads, cutting off space and slowing down traffic.
In some areas, the remains of the pandals have not yet been removed.
An 18-year-old student recently wrote a letter to this newspaper highlighting the issue.
“Many prominent pandals and large hoardings around the city are yet to have their bamboo scaffolding removed which is causing considerable hindrance to pedestrians and commuters alike. Especially along the Rashbehari Avenue stretch, bamboo fencing that had been set up to facilitate pedestrian movement is now adversely affecting it. Pandals along busy roads continue to hinder traffic, causing delays across the city. I feel this is an issue that needs to be addressed with immediate effect such that the city can resume its everyday life once again,” Monoshij Ghosh wrote on November 1.
Ghosh, who studies journalism in Bangalore and was visiting his hometown for the Puja, said he found Deshapriya Park to be a prime example of the menace.
“The intersection between Rashbehari Avenue and Sarat Bose Road sees heavy traffic. But the flow of vehicles slowed down considerably because of the bamboo frames,” he said.
