Bhubaneswar, Dec. 26: Illegal hoardings and billboards that had been pulled down with much fanfare have reappeared across the city.

The malpractice has recently made a comeback here showing utter disregard to the Supreme Court's guidelines for public safety and the move to clear the city's skyline.

The Supreme Court directive was to properly implement the Odisha Outdoor Advertisement and Hoarding Policy, 2015, which says that urban local bodies should ensure that the policy is implemented properly keeping road safety in mind.

The policy bars people from erecting, exhibiting, fixing or displaying advertisement boards on any building, which causes distraction to motorists and endangers public safety. It also prohibits putting up hoardings or billboards near religious places such as temples, mosques, gurudwaras, churches and on buildings or land within 100 metres of such places.

Accordingly, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation had launched a drive from Raj Mahal Square in November and removed rooftop hoardings that used to pose a threat to passers by.

Municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar, who had co-ordinated the de-hoarding drive at Raj Mahal Square at that time, was emphatic that the enforcement squad would continue the drive till the Supreme Court directive in this regard was implemented properly and safety of people using the city roads was ensured.

Today, Kumar was unavailable for his comments on reappearance of the hoardings.

However, the corporation's additional commissioner Alok Kumar Kar said the civic body would look into the matter and launch the next phase of de-hoarding drive shortly. "We have issued a warning to those who are putting up their hoardings illegally. If they do not abide by the rules, we will penalise them," said Kar.

On the other hand, such recurrence of the illegal practice has irked residents. They, by large, feel that absence of proper monitoring system has got the city's skyline back to square one.

"It seems the officials are only maintaining a pretence of working for the people. Had that not been the case, these hoardings would not have reappeared," said Ashok Nagar resident Girija Mishra.

"The officials are working in a perfunctory manner. If the civic body officials really want to maintain the beauty of the city's skyline, they have to be stricter. If they start penalising, the offenders things would change immediately," Rasulgarh resident Yayati Jena.

The corporation, in its last council meeting, had also decided to have a separate policy for installing and removing political hoardings and posters in the city. This policy is yet to take shape. The civic body officials, however, claimed that the modalities for this new policy were being worked out.

"Our officials are working on the policy draft. This is a sensitive matter and since we don't want any controversies we are working on to bring in uniform guidelines for such hoardings. We will identify specific places where such hoardings can be put up," said a civic body official.