Civic body’s advertising hoardings ‘deface’ art spaces

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 2

The huge advertising hoardings put up by the MC over some art spaces that had been created through volunteer effort by noted artists, including Nita Mohindra for Artists For Amritsar Transformation (AFAT), have irked the art community and NGOs in the city. Terming it as ‘insensitive and disrespecting’, the artists are surprised at the defacing of art works, especially created to beautify and encourage support for a green and clean city. 

Out of the several spots, two prominent ones – one at the Kichlew Chowk flyover and the other in front of the Pingalwara branch near the bus stand have been marred by the hoardings. The mural painted in front of the Pingalwara office was done by Mohindra and her team of students and depicts an inverted tree system depicting how society is working inversely to the natural laws of human sustenance. “It’s painful to see the hard work being ignored just because of a few commercial gains. The AFAT project was launched in association with Dilbir Foundation and in support with Municipal Corporation. We had painstakingly worked for 15 days, handling rough traffic and onlookers, who probed us throughout the day. I had volunteered to clean the up area first where heaps of garbage had been lying, before the work began. And to see your work being defaced after such hard work, is just shocking,” said Mohindra, who is currently attending the MAMI Mumbai International Film Festival. 

The AFAT project was launched by Dilbir Foundation last year in collaboration with the MC to clean and develop aesthetic spots in the city with artistic expressions on eco-issues. It involved volunteer efforts of artists, citizens and students, who were responsible for maintaining these spots as well. The Kichlew Chowk flyover, two sites at Bhagat Puran Singh Pingalwara Crossing and another site under the airport road flyover were dedicated to the project and several residents of the city and organisations chipped in to provide plantation activity. Two more sites at Sharifpura and Saragarhi had been allotted for beautification by the MCA. 

“We were categorically told by the MC office that tendering of some of these spaces was underway for use for commercial or other purpose. Only when the process would be completed, we’d be allotted more spots for aesthetic development. We are still waiting for that to happen and now the defacing of the ones already developed comes as shocker. The mayor had himself inaugurated the project and we were willing to maintain these spaces with volunteer effort by the residents and artists, who had come out in full force to support the campaign. I really hope that the MC authorities consider the work done by the artists and spare these spots of these hoardings,” said Gunbir Singh, president, Dilbir Foundation.