While the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun claims to undertake efforts towards making Dehradun clean and green, it has consistently ignored the defacement of public property in various parts of the city. Posters advertising various businesses and coaching institutes have become a common feature of many public and even private properties where they are pasted illegally. Though the MCD is awaiting a complaint before taking action, citizens in general are unhappy with continued defacement of properties in the city and feel that the MCD should take action without waiting for a complaint.
According to concerned citizen Ashish Garg, he directly tried to complain on the Chief Minister’s app but due to some software issue the application did not work. He said that I will file a complaint again. “I will make an appeal to people to call the owners of these coaching institutes and request them not to deface the public property and our beautiful city,” he said.
According to municipal commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey, no such complaint has been made to the MCD about this issue. “No complaint has been made till now, we will look into the matter and take action against the violators,” he said.
However, on this Garg questioned who will acknowledge this problem if the officials of MCD don’t. “Under the Uttaranchal Prevention of Defacement of Public Property Act 2003 pasting posters on public property is a punishable offence. The officials are very well aware of this; they themselves pass from these roads every day. If the MCD will ignore all this then how will the city become clean and green?” questioned Garg.
Where few people are pointing out at these coaching centres being business minded others are complaining about the lack of initiative on the part of Government and the MCD.
“Just because everyone has the right to publicise their businesses, it doesn’t mean they will misuse their right. There is a certain way to do it which these business owners must follow. Also, it is the responsibility of MCD to take notice of such things, raise awareness and punish these people,” said a student Gaurav Bhola.
Another student on the condition of anonymity opined that the MCD has just one major responsibility which is sanitation. If it can’t do that properly, the corporation cannot be expected to put efforts for beautification.
“I feel that heavy fine should be imposed on these coaching centres. There should be dedicated sites for displaying these fliers or to do any commercial activity and the business owners should take prior permission from the authorities before using the sites,” said Srishti Paul, a local resident.
“Such posters can also be seen defacing public and private properties especially during college or political elections. In this case also the names of the offenders should be listed and harsh fines should be imposed on them,” she added.