When BBMP rules are

When BBMP rules are

Manasi Paresh Kumar
Posted On Monday, November 10, 2008

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa had recently directed the BBMP to ban all banners, buntings and cut-outs on several important roads in the city. But the diktat has only turned out to be a damp squib! Sample this: BBMP head office at Hudson Circle is itself dotted with huge hoardings despite the rule book banning them.

In 2006, the then BBMP Council decided that no hoardings or flex banners will be allowed inside the BBMP premises. Cut to 2008, and one finds huge banners adorning the BBMP annex building. The large visuals virtually cover an entire section of the two-floored structure. Rules seem to have few takers within the gates of the Palike.

The banners were erected by the Powrakarmikara Sanghas to celebrate Ambedkar Day on 16 October. It has been more than two weeks since the event and what is funny is that no one seems to have a clue about who has to take these banners down. Peddaraju, General Secretary of the Powrakarmika and Gangman Union, told Bangalore Mirror that the onus of taking down these techni-coloured ‘adornments’ lay with the BBMP officials. “Yes there is a rule that banners should not be put up in the BBMP premises, but it was Ambedkar Day,” said the office bearer!

The annex building houses the offices of top officials including the Deputy Commissioner, Health officer and Chief Engineer of Project Central 2. While the officials were unavailable for comment, their staff agreed that there was a ban but did not want to take on the powerful union by objecting to them. One of them even joked, “The banner gives a bit shade when you have to pass through the sunny corridor, maybe that is why they are still standing.”