A group of Kolkatans is trying to revive an online petition that was created last year demanding guidelines on the installation of temporary banners ahead of Durga Puja and how they should be disposed of after the festival ends.
The petition voices concern about how the banners block airflow to the houses behind them and raises the question of whether the fire brigade would find easy access to the buildings in case of an emergency.
Demanding that the civic authorities issue guidelines, the group has also urged the government to ensure that the banners are responsibly disposed of after the Puja.
The petition was first uploaded in September 2022, days before last year’s Durga Puja, but the fears expressed have not become dated.
Large flexes with advertisements, tied to temporary bamboo frames, have started to appear in many places in the last 10 days or a fortnight. Rashbehari Avenue already has many banners. In Hazra, the bamboo frames have been erected and the banners will be up soon. Such banners can be seen all across the city and Salt Lake.
The online petition got about 100 signatures on Saturday. Since last year, it has garnered 2,455 signatures.
“People find it difficult to locate addresses as these hoardings are all over the major road intersections,” the petition reads.
“Is this not a safety issue as well? What happens if there is a fire? How will the response team work with such hoardings blocking access? Many Kolkata residents have complained that hoardings have been put in such a way that they cannot even open their windows now!” it reads.
Ajay Mittal, who started the petition, told The Telegraph that he saw there were two or three layers of banners, one put up above another.
“Earlier there used to be one banner. Nowadays, there are banners one above another,” he said.
A number of banners together with the bamboo scaffolding collapsed on the Durgapur bridge last Navami, blocking traffic.
The footpath is dug up to insert the bamboos underground.
Debashis Kumar, the mayoral council member in charge of parks and squares in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), said he did not feel there was any need to issue any guidelines.
“Every year, the banners are fitted before Puja and removed after Puja. Why is there a need to issue any guidelines now?” he asked.
Kumar added that the flexes are taken to the Dhapa waste disposal ground after Puja.
“We have a plastic processing unit. It can be recycled,” he said.
There is no official count on how many such banners are fitted across the city.
The owner of one outdoor advertising agency said they alone will fit about 10,000 such temporary banners. There are multiple such agencies that install banners ahead of Puja.
Part of the money spent by the companies whose advertisements feature on the banners goes to the Puja committees near the location of the banners.
A stretch of the footpath is divided among the Puja committees and the outdoor advertising agencies pay money to these committees.
“We approach the companies which put up the banners. They agree to pay a sum, a part of which goes to the Puja committee. We keep a part as our profit,” said the owner of the advertising agency.