The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation may soon come up with a new advertisement policy that bans hoardings and billboards at road junctions. Hoardings divert the attention of motorists on busy roads, often leading to accidents. “Existing laws against billboards and hoardings are not stringent enough. We have proposed a new advertisement policy, in which all billboards and hoardings on road junctions will be removed,” said Dhananjay Reddy, additional commissioner, Town Planning.
If the huge hoardings dist-ract motorists, ‘flexi’ post-ers pasted at public places and on building walls mar the scenic harmony of the city. The GHMC will act against these as well. However, till the new policy comes into effect, the civic body wants to rely on Section 4 of the AP Prevention of Disfigurement of Open Places and Prohibition of Obscene and Objectionable Advertisements Act 1997, which makes the defacing of any public or private place a punishable offence.
Calling it visual pollution, C.V. Anand, additional commissioner (traffic), said, “We welcome this proposal and have sent our report on the same.” Sandhya, an activist added, “Most of the boards have obscene content and distract the drivers.” Meanwhile, though the Advertisements Act gives GHMC the right to prosec-ute violators, not many cases have been booked so far.