Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) on Monday claimed it had removed all banners and hoardings carrying political references and publicising government schemes in accordance with the model code of conduct, but said it won’t wait for the elections to get over to roll out its garbage collection project as its tender was finalised before the announcement of the Assembly poll schedule.

“We have also directed our marketing department to allow only those hoardings that will be counted as election expenditure by political parties,” Municipal commissioner Manoj Kumar said.

He said work on taking down the hoardings had begun from Friday when the dates for the Assembly elections were announced. “That day, we removed many banners through which political parties and leaders had extended Chhath greetings,” Kumar added.

The municipal commissioner said the civic body was equally serious about executing the garbage collection project that was directly associated with public health and cleanliness.

“The tender for the project had been finalised before the announcement of the election dates. We have also forwarded it to the urban development department for their final approval,” Kumar said.

He said the RMC was also planning to seek the Election Commission’s permission for the installation of smart bins. “We plan to install 200 smart bins at 70 garbage points. We are also planning to procure two road sweeping machines.”