City under the shade of saffron

City under the shade of saffron


Faiza Haneef | ENS
15 Sep 2008 05:50:00 AM IST

BANGALORE: It was only a couple of days back that Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa rued the fact that nobody follows the BBMP's guidelines. And now, his own government has gone ahead and breached the rules with complete disregard for the City's aesthetics. The 100-day celebration of the BJP government and the the Party's national executive committe emeeting has made sure that every nook and corner of the City has been painted saffron, literally. BJP flags dot the streets while banners and cut-outs of leaders like L K Advaniand Rajnath Singh are spread across the skyline of the City. The new Bangalore International Airport has also not been spared with huge banners being put upright inside the airport premises. There are posters in the vicinity of the Vidhana Soudha, the High Court, the Vikasa Soudha: areas, which had been declared advertisement-free zones by the Chief Minister. It has been more than four days that these banners have come up and there is no sign of authorities making any effort to pull them down as per the new time limit set by the CM which says -- the installation of hoardings by political partiesand their leaders would be allowed to put up only on two days: a day prior to the programme and on the programme day.The party meeting has now concluded and its time for these banners to come off the streets, but officials concerned do not seem to be really worried about the aesthetics of the City. When contacted, a senior BBMP official told The Express that the banners should have been removed as soon as the party event got over but Sunday being a holiday, it has not happened yet. ''We will start the work tomorrow and all the banners will be removed by Monday evening, '' he said.