Hoardings and banners mounted on bamboo frames have sprung up across the city’s pavements in clear violation of the rules laid down in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Advertisement Policy notified earlier this year.

The policy allows temporary advertisements during Durga Puja only from seven days before Mahalaya — September 21 this year — and requires them to be removed within seven days after Dashami, which falls on October 2.

Chapter 2 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Advertisement Policy) Regulations, 2025 states: “... temporary advertisements (put up by both advertising agencies and Puja committees) may be allowed from 7 (seven) days before Mahalaya and may be continued up to 7 (seven) days after Bijaya Dashami.”

But a drive across the city from north to south revealed a different picture. Digital advertisements are already playing along Rashbehari Avenue near Deshapriya Park. Temporary hoardings were spotted on EM Bypass in the east, and in the north along Bhupen Bose Avenue, APC Road near the Kolkata Police Museum, and Aurobindo Sarani near the Sovabazar Metro crossing. In many places, the bamboo frames stretch across entire pavements, with banners being mounted on them.

“I noticed some banners near Lake Mall on Rashbehari Avenue on Wednesday. On Friday evening, I saw digital advertisements already running on screens outside Deshapriya Park,” said a south Calcutta resident.

Ajay Mittal, a resident of Hazra who had started an online petition in 2022 raising concerns about the safety of tall bamboo frames and how the banners completely block the view of buildings behind them, said the hoardings along EM Bypass near Captain Bheri appeared much taller than 22 feet — the maximum height allowed under the new rules.

Mittal said he was disappointed that the newly framed regulations were already being ignored. “Earlier, there were no rules or guidelines on temporary advertisements before Puja. I was happy when the KMC finally framed them, but it seems they’re only on paper. What’s the point of having rules if they are not followed?” he asked.

“On one hand, the KMC is declaring some streets as no-hoarding zones, and
on the other, they are allowing indiscriminate visual pollution elsewhere. Now that Durga Puja has received the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage tag, the authorities should try to attract international tourists. We should be creating a clean, decluttered, and safe city,” Mittal added.

A Sovabazar resident said a stretch of pavement along Bhupen Bose Avenue, near the Shyambazar five-point crossing, has been wrapped with hoardings mounted on bamboo frames.

Debashis Kumar, the mayoral council member in charge of advertisements, told Metro that the KMC had “yet to receive any complaint”. When asked why the civic body wouldn’t act on its own, he said: “We have already pulled down some temporary advertisements.”

However, a KMC official said he was unaware of any such action. “We have only verbally informed the agency that they are not allowed to put up the advertisements so early. We have left it to their good sense,” the official said.