The crusaders at Bengal Club on Thursday. (Bhola Prasad)

Get ready for a colourful vigil on urban walls.

Be it New York or Mumbai, outdoor wall murals are the signature of every major city waging a war against ad pamphlets or graffiti. In Indian cities, defacement of walls of homes, institutes or other buildings takes another turn. People spit betel juice or use walls as urinals.

In Jamshedpur, city artists of Acharya Nandalal Bose Art Gallery at The Bengal Club, Sakchi, on Thursday announced their war against defacement of public property with colours at an art camp.

“We want our city to look wonderful and colourful. We want to make murals or wall paintings to discourage people from defacing facades of buildings with ad pamphlets or graffiti,” said Shubhendu Biswas, a member of the Acharya Nandalal Bose Art Gallery, hosting the four-day camp at The Bengal Club with 35 artists.

The artists also want to tie up with Jusco’s year-long civic sense campaign Zimmedar Nagrik, Zimmedar Shahar.

Jusco, incidentally, had in 2010 beautified some walls with tribal paintings.

What the artists will now do is make the campaign bigger. “Our plan is involving schoolchildren in groups, who can be divided across the city for the work, guided by a senior artist,” Biswas said, adding they were inspired by “some path-breaking work in Bhubaneswar, Odisha”, which has the culture of promoting local art on city walls.

When contacted, Rajesh Rajan, Jusco corporate communications head, expressed his enthusiasm. “We fight wall graffiti everyday. It will be great to chalk out a plan with senior artists who can join us in the campaign. This will be a new initiative by corporate outfits and city artists,” he said.

Jusco, through its Zimmedaar Nagrik, Zimmedaar Shahar, will collaborate with clubs and social outfits to reach out to people and tell them of their duty in keeping their city clean and green. The wall mural campaign of Acharya Nandalal Bose Art Gallery is in perfect sync with Jusco’s drive.

Putting up graffiti or advertisements on walls can be prosecuted under provisions of the Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1987.