Government hoardings carry pictures of chief minister Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar . Pictures by Sanjib Mukherjee and Uttam Kumar Pal

Rourkela, March 9: The town administration today removed all posters and hoardings of political parties and government projects from the streets here.

Interestingly, such posters can still be found in Bhubaneswar.

The action was taken following the instruction of the collector-cum-district election officer that all such materials, which amount to violation of model code of conduct for the upcoming polls, should be removed. Several teams conducted the drive at various places across Rourkela today.

An official, who was part of the drive, said that the district election officer ordered them to take away all such advertisement boards from the town. “We removed all such materials from public places by the evening,” he said.

Some political parties, however, complained that several BJD hoardings and other advertisement materials were still on display in the town. The Opposition parties have objected to an information board on the Odisha Right to Public Services Act, 2012, in the form of graffiti on the wall of Roukela Municipality office as it contained a picture of chief minister Naveen Patnaik. “Such materials are violating the model code of conduct for the polls,” said BJP activist R. Agarwal.