Nearly 7k posters removed on 2nd day of drive

On the first day after launching a drive to remove posters from public places, the Greater Chennai Corporation has removed more than 17,000 sqft of posters.

As per the data, 17,048 sqft of posters were removed, of which 12,548 sqft of posters were removed from the central region on day one.

In the central region, the drive was conducted on 176 roads and 2,084 posters were removed. In the north and south regions, the drive was conducted at 94 and 145 locations respectively. As many as 848 and 1,719 posters were removed from north and south regions, which is 3,955 sqft and 5,145 sqft respectively.

Interestingly, in terms of sqft, the amount of posters removed from some of the extended zones is higher than the posters removed from core city zones. For instance, of the 3,955 sqft of posters removed on the first day from the north, including Tondiarpet and Royapuram, 2,210 sqft were from Madhavaram zone. But in terms of the number of posters, Royapurm and Tondiarpet accounted higher than Madhavaram.

Similarly, 1,699 sqft and 1,720 sqft of posters were removed in Perungudi and Sholinganallur. The numbers suggest that the sizes of posters pasted in the extended zones are bigger. “As the extended zones are still developing, new commercial activities are picking up. This might be the reason for bigger posters in those zones,” an official said.

In a statement, Chennai Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi warned​ ​of action against the persons, who continue to paste wall posters. ​“​The drive ​would​ be conducted on a daily basis with five roads from each ​​of 15 zones will be cleaned​,” he added.

On the other hand, GM Shankar, a social activist pointed out that the drive to remove posters using workers would only add to the burden. “The civic body should make the persons who pasted the posters remove them or should make them pay the expenses of the removal,” he said.

He also urged the civic body to take stringent action against such persons rather than appealing to them not to paste the posters.