Posters, leaders’ photos blackened in Jalandhar

Jalandhar, May 18

Posters of various political parties put up underneath the flyover of the Pathankot Chowk were found to have been blackened here this morning.

Area residents said some teams of officials came to remove the posters. “First, they tried to scrap the posters. As it was quite painstaking and taking too long to remove, officials blackened the faces of all candidates and leaders in the posters,” said some shopkeepers in the area.

Pictures of defacement of pillars and walls underneath the flyover were highlighted in these columns recently. While posters of SAD candidate MS Kaypee, which were loosely pasted on a pillar, were found to be removed this morning, those with Centre’s schemes, larger in size or had a stronger adhesive were blackened. Even pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and slogans and symbol of the BJP were also blackened. The manner in which the faces of leaders were blackened was not liked by onlookers.

“This is like disgracing the leaders. The administration should take a strict action against all those government employees who indulged in such act. They rather defaced the walls,” said Parveen Sharma, a resident of Lamma Pind Chowk.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Amit Mahajan, however, denied any such step of blackening the posters by the administration. “Our directions to the staff is to simply note down the number of posters of a candidate put up illegally or in debarred public places and issue notice to the candidate for any such violation,” he said. He said: “Area residents could have mistaken the supporters of some rival parties for officials.”