Royal city defaced by political parties-officials unaware; want complaint for action
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
Once a city of gardens-Royal city Patiala, a hometown of local bodies minister Brahm Mohindra, Punjab Pradesh congress committee president Navjot Singh Sidhu, two time chief minister of Punjab Capt Amarinder Singh has become a defaced city from a VIP city.
With the assembly elections are round the corner, political parties are busy in pasting posters and putting up banners and hoardings, across Royal city thus defacing and littering public property, without any threat of law.
Violating the civic norms, hoardings are dotting the city every nook and corner of the city be at Leela Bhawan, Sheranwala gate, Fountain Chowk, Patiala-Rajpura Road, Sirhind Road, bus stand road, Nabha road, Bhadson road, inside lanes of localities etc. Whereas the posters were pasted across city by political parties, coaching institutes etc.
Recently, Kundan Gogia, who wants to fight upcoming assembly elections from Patiala (urban) on Aam Admi Party (AAP) ticket, has defaced the entire city with his posters. His poster can be seen at every nook and corner of the city. Even newly whitewashed walls of government properties, A type govt bungalow, army officers club beautifully decorated wall of head post office etc were not spared, where one can see his posters.
Earlier another politician of another party had defaced the city. His poster had defaced the beautiful graffiti done under a railway over bridge.
The MC is silent and not taking adequate action for removing hoardings of political parties that dot the entire city. Most of these hoardings belong to ruling Congress government local leaders. With the MC ruled by the Congress government, the officials are too hesitant to follow the law book. It is despite the fact that earlier the Punjab and Haryana high court had clearly directed the Patiala MC to remove all the illegal hoarding.
“Defacement of public property is one of the major issues, as residents complain that posters, pamphlets and unregulated paintings can be spotted at different places, including hospitals, government offices, residences, govt properties, underpasses of flyovers, marring the beauty of the Royal City. Patiala district administration fails to act against violators or taking initiative to take stringent action against the violators. The administration is skipping from its duty and wants a written complaint from city residents to take action” said Gagandeep, a local resident.
When contacted SDM Patiala Charanjit Singh (PCS) he feigned ignorance and said” where are these posters? You can give a complaint. It’s a duty of the municipal corporation. I’ll ask them to look into it. No notice to anybody has been issued for defacing the Royal city, under the defacement act.”
When contacted the commissioner municipal corporation, Vineet Kumar, IAS, he said “no such action, notice has been issued to anybody, in my tenure. Rest, I’ll check and look into it.”
When contacted Kundan Gogia, AAP ticket aspirant from Patiala (urban) he said “I was ill and remained in-house for almost a week. Actually my team is doing this. I had already got this feedback. Two three days ago i had already instructed my team members to not to deface the city. It’s a wrong thing.”
Royal city defaced by political parties-officials unaware; want complaint for action. Under the Punjab Prevention of Defacement of Property Ordinance Act, 1997, whoever defaces any property in public view by writing or marking with ink, chalk, paint or any other material or by erecting staffs, banners or by pasting notices and writing slogans without the written permission of the owner of the property, except for the purpose of indicating the name and address of the owner or occupier of such property, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term, which may extend to six months or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees or with both. Defacement of any public or private property is a cognizable offence.
December 15,2021
