The deadline to remove all temporary hoardings put up before Durga Puja ended on Thursday, but many banners and bamboo frames from which they were hung still line the city’s roads.
They are everywhere. Even right in front of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation headquarters.
The civic body, custodian of the city’s roads and pavements, had set a seven-day deadline from Vijaya Dashami to clear all Puja hoardings. However, even the authorities have failed to remove their own temporary structures in several areas.
For instance, a watchtower built for Kolkata Police on the pavement at the intersection of Lake View Road and Rashbehari Avenue was still standing on Friday afternoon, occupying nearly four feet of the pavement’s width.
An officer of Rabindra Sarobar police station said they have already asked the state public works department, which erected the tower, to dismantle it.
A quick drive through the city on Friday showed bamboo frames, hoardings and overhead gates across roads were present on almost all arterial roads — Central Avenue, Beadon Street, Asutosh Mukherjee Road, Rashbehari Avenue, Ekdalia Road and Doctor Rajendra Road in Bhowanipore.
The scene was worse along other roads.
At Ekdalia Road and Doctor Rajendra Road, a series of across-the-road gates, along with the hoardings, were still present.
At Rashbehari Avenue, most bamboo frames remain, though most of the hoardings have been taken down. It is a similar picture across most other roads.
A commuter reported seeing hoardings and bamboo structures along a stretch of EM Bypass near Mani Square on Thursday night.
Kesto Saha, director of Karukrit and the chairperson of Outdoor Advertising Agency, said about 30 per cent of Puja hoardings were still hanging across the city. The bamboo frames have hardly been removed, he said. “The KMC has written to all agencies that the hoardings have to be removed,” he said.
This is the first time that there is a formal deadline to remove hoardings and banners put up before Puja. Earlier, they stayed for weeks after Puja.
While the KMC regulations specify a seven-day deadline for removal, they do not explicitly mention whether bamboo frames must also be taken down within that period. A KMC official clarified that the civic body expects the entire structure — hoardings and frames — to be removed within the deadline.
Puja organisers admitted that removing the bamboo frames has been a challenge. “Most decorators get busy with Kali Puja pandals, and getting hands to take down the bamboo frames used to put up Durga Puja hoardings becomes difficult,” said Anjan Ukil, general secretary of the Ballygunge Cultural Association.
Two KMC teams were scheduled to conduct raids across the city on Friday night to remove hoardings that had not been taken down by Friday evening.
“We have also scheduled a similar drive on Saturday and again next week. The ongoing rain may, however, delay our action. We will first remove the hoardings and then bring down the bamboo frames,” said the official.
“We have also emailed about 45 outdoor advertising agencies registered with us and the association of the agencies to take down the temporary structures,” added the official.
Accident on bridge
In some places, such as Bijon Setu (Ballygunge bridge), the bamboo frames have been dismantled but are stacked on the side of the road, creating new hazards.
A police officer said a bus accidentally drove over the poles on Wednesday. One tyre rolled over a pole, causing the other end to swing up and hit a two-wheeler coming from behind.
“Fortunately, the injuries were not grievous. But keeping the poles stacked on the road can cause serious accidents,” he said.