‘Sewadars’ defacing the Royal City; administration fails to act; officers playing passing the pass
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ December 9,2023
Patiala has become the ugliest city due to the unstoppable defacement being done by the ruling party politicians, residents and the same goes unchecked by the district administration and concerned departments.
The violators are not even sparing the government properties and the administration seems to be a mute spectator. Even the concerned department fails to issue any notice to the violators.
In August 2023 the Circuit Patiala was fully whitewashed, cleaned due the state level Independence Day celebrations. Lakhs of public money was spent on whitewashing the building.Even these politicians defaced the newly whitewashed walls of the circuit house too.
Now a days the ‘Sewadars’ of the ruling party, some of them who are contenders for the tickets of MCs for next year 2024 municipal corporation elections are defacing the city. Almost every main road, inside colonies roads, main chowks etc are defaced with illegal hoardings, posters of political workers of the ruling party, tarnishing the beauty of the city.
It has came to fore that violators who have been pasting posters, putting up banners, hoardings across the Royal city have no threat of law. They are defacing the city, littering the public property without any fear. The situation in the city is becoming bad to worse as majority of the walls and buildings are turning into poster walls.
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 and underpasses of flyovers, marring the beauty of the Royal City and Patiala district administration fails to act against violators.
Sumit, a city resident said “to control defacement menace is not a big issue. There are only few advertisement agencies, printing presses, agencies pasting the posters on walls, who are defacing the city. The administration, MC can issue notices, warn them to strict action if they are found violating the norms.”
When contacted SDM Patiala Ismat Vijay Singh (PCS) she said” I’ll check it. No notice to anybody has been issued for defacing the Royal city, under the defacement act. ” When asked about the defacement of Circuit house walls. She said ” i’ll ask the concerned to clean the wall . Moreover it’s the duty of the municipal corporation to remove the material. You may contact the MC officials.”
When contacted the superintendent land branch of municipal corporation Sanjeev Garg he said “we are removing the illegal hoardings on the daily basis. Posters pasted on the walls are comes under defacement act and the administration has the authority to issue the notice to the defaulters under defacement act. Moreover, it’s the responsibility of the government building occupant to lodge complaint about the pasting of posters on their walls. “ He also added that the corporation issues challan to the illegal hoardings only.
‘Sewadars’ defacing the Royal City; administration fails to act; officers playing passing the pass . 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.
