Kurukshetra, March 10
Thousands of
hoardings, advertisements, wall paintings and overhead neon signs continue to
dot public places, including highways, in Punjab and Haryana as the governments
of the two states have shown little or no urgency in following the directions of
the Election Commission to remove these immediately.
“We have no instructions
from the state government to remove these,” remarked a senior district official
here as huge hoardings highlighting achievements of the Indian National Lok Dal
government, put up several months ago at the cost of the state exchequer,
continue to greet people visiting government departments, including
mini-secretariats in districts, subdivision and block offices, bus stands and
important intersections on national and state highways.
When The Tribune
highlighted the issue in September last year, many hoardings were removed. Those
inside the municipal and panchayat limits were left untouched.
In Haryana, the
state went a step ahead. After removing hoardings from highways, it went in for
a massive campaign of listing achievements of the government on walls of public
buildings, road and bridge culverts, subways and all available spaces. It also
used state-owned roadways buses for the purpose.
According to sources, the
hoardings were put up at a huge cost to the state exchequer. Those which were
removed were dumped at some Haryana agro-centres, including one at
Nilokheri.
In Punjab, the problem was limited to putting up hoardings in
district and subdivisional headquarters and some overhead highway neon
signs.
While it may take some time to remove the hoardings, it will take much
more time, may be some weeks, in clearing wall paintings. “Oil wall paintings
can only be cleared with a stronger coat of paint,” said a top functionary of a
corporation, which had put up hoardings in Ambala, Kurukshetra, Panchkula and
Karnal districts.
“If the wall paintings cost the state exchequer several
crores, it will cost a few crores more to remove these now,” said another senior
official of the Haryana Government. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said
instructions were also issued some weeks ago to various corporations and boards
to put up neon signs highlighting achievements of the government in a catchy and
attractive manner.
Some corporations had already taken the initiative and were
on the job. He said he was not sure whether the expenditure on these hoardings
and their removal would get clearance from auditors of the Comptroller-General’s
office.
A policeman on traffic duty near the district complex in Kurukshetra
said though he heard the news on television yesterday, no one from the district
administration came to remove any of several hoardings in the complex till late
this evening.
A spokesman for the election office maintained that “these
hoardings should have been automatically removed by the states concerned
immediately after introduction of the Model Code of Conduct on February
29.
“There is no such thing that states have been given 24 hours, 48 hours or
72 hours to remove these. The Model Code of Conduct is very clear that there
should be no such hoarding or advertisement at the cost of the state
exchequer’’, the spokesman said.
In Punjab, only some overhead neon signs
carrying pictures of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the Punjab Chief
Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, were removed yesterday. Others, including
hoardings and overhead neon signs continue to publicise achievements of the
Congress government.
