The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Suburban residents want their local bodies to ban graffiti

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Tuesday, Jun 09, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Suburban residents want their local bodies to ban graffiti

K. Manikandan

Plea to keep bus stops and compound walls of schools free of wall posters

— Photo: A.Muralitharan

Eyesore: Posters at the bus stand in Chromepet.

TAMBARAM: A cross-section of residents of the southern suburbs have applauded the Chennai Corporation’s decision to ban wall posters and graffiti along Anna Salai and Kamarajar Salai from June 10, and demanded that their own local bodies introduce a similar ban.

Their demand comes in the context of a surfeit of graffiti and posters of educational institutions, movies and quacks promising cure for ailments threatening to take over every inch of available public space in the suburbs.

A case in point is the Chromepet bus shelter. A sum of Rs.82 lakh allocated from former Union Minister T.R. Baalu’s Member of Parliament Local Area Development Fund was spent on creating the huge shelter. Tiles were fixed on walls that gave the entire facility an elegant look.

However, the entire stretch of nearly 100 metres has been taken over by posters pasted by several organisations. “Some posters are repulsive,” said Anusuya, a resident of Radha Nagar, Chromepet, and an athlete.

Commuters are uniformly of the opinion that posters on walls and pillars are an eyesore and should be removed. In August 2008, members of the Pallavaram Town Citizens’ Awareness Centre and the municipal authorities joined hands to remove posters stuck over the years at the bus shelter near the railway station.

The authorities, commuters complain, have, however, ignored the new facility on the opposite side. G. Panneerselvam, a commuter, said walls cleared of posters would go a long way in creating awareness of the need to keep such facilities clean. The menace is not restricted to Chromepet, almost all bus-stops and public places face similar problems.

Authorities of Baby High School, an aided school in West Tambaram, have complained more than once to the Tambaram municipality about graffiti and posters, including provocative ones stuck by certain organisations. But there has been no response.

Even posters of obscene movies are stuck on walls near the school entrance. Despite a police warning inscribed on the walls, the practice continues, said R. P. Prabhakar, a parent. The posters are bound to have an negative impact on young minds, he said, adding that the proposed initiative of the Chennai Corporation should be replicated by local bodies to keep at least a few stretches and public places, bus stops and compound walls of schools free of such a nuisance.

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