Political, religious banners, hoardings dot Amritsar city landscape

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, November 15

While unipoles and hoardings have cropped up in every nook and corner of the city in the absence of any checks, the direction towers on main GT road have also not been spared.

Cocking a snook at the norms, these were covered with political and religious banners with impunity leaving the tourists arriving in the holy city clueless for directions.

What is ironical, the political banners and hoardings were put up by leaders of the ruling party that came to power with a promise to bring about ‘change’ in governance. The banners also adorned the pictures of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

The district and civic authorities have failed to take any action so far, turning a blind eye to the violations.

One banner that covered the direction tower near Cantonment police station has the picture of Punjab media coordinator Gurbhej Singh Sandhu while another banner has the picture of District Planning Board Chairman Jaspreet Singh.

Amritsar witnesses a huge footfall of tourists visiting the Golden Temple and Wagah border. The covering of signages with banners has meant difficulties in finding road directions for the commuters.

“The government should rename Amritsar by changing ‘holy city’ to ‘hoarding city’ because of the number of hoardings have come up after the new government came to power,” said Parkash Singh, a resident of Putlighar area.

“The direction towers from Khalsa College to railway station were covered by these illegal banners. When a common man can see these violations, why not the civic authorities? It clearly indicates that the civic authorities work under the influence of their political bosses,” said another resident, Rajinder Sharma.

Gurbhej Singh Sandhu and Jaspreet Singh could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. Pushpinder Singh, in-charge, advertising wing, also did not respond to phone calls.