Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) has served a notice on an outdoor advertising agency against the use of ?suggestive pictures? in billboards publicising ice creams of a reputed brand.

The billboards have been put up at the four-point crossings in Behala, Kankurgachhi and Gol Park.

?We have taken this decision after receiving several complaints from citizens over the past week,? said mayor Subrata Mukherjee. Another advertising agency has also been asked not to use ?lip marks? on the undergarment in an ad, the mayor added.

?But can you expect models to wear kurtas in ads while trying to sell undergarments?? an executive of a leading outdoor advertising agency countered.

?I am against taking an unnecessarily puritanical and harsh stand against advertisements, but when citizens complain, the CMC should take steps to avoid controversy,? Mukherjee said.

To reduce the clutter caused by billboards, the CMC has decided to encourage their use on trailer trucks.

In 2004-2005, the CMC had earned a revenue of Rs 50 lakh from the mobile billboards.

However, the main stumbling block in popularising mobile billboards is the encroachment by hawkers. Though the CMC imposes Rs 60,000 as annual land utilisation charge on a mobile billboard trailer, the roadside hawkers don?t allow them to be stationed close to a pavement.

Officials say that 40 per cent of the 2,500 billboards in the city are unauthorised.