KMC mulls FIR on missing hoardings

Kolkata: Concerned over the disappearance of several hoardings carrying social messages put up by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) in the city, the civic body will soon lodge an FIR with the Kolkata police to prevent such acts.

In the last 45 days, more than 200 such hoardings put up by the civic body have gone missing.

“We had put up a number of hoardings across the city as a part of our various awareness campaigns, particularly about the mosquito-borne diseases like malaria, dengue, chikungunya. However, a majority of those hoardings have gone missing. EM Bypass area, Chittaranjan Avenue, SP Mukherjee Road, Harish Mukherjee Road, Ashutosh Mukherjee Road and some other places have witnessed similar incidents. We are in the process of preparing the list of the hoardings and by the end of this week we will lodge complaint with the respective deputy commissioners (DC) of police from whose jurisdictional area these hoardings have gone missing,” mayor-in-council (health) Atin Ghosh said.

The KMC captures photographs of all such hoardings when they are put up. “We have the photographs loaded in our server. We will also furnish photographs of some hoardings along with the compliant,” an official said. The civic body is hopeful that as there is CCTV camera installed at vital points in the city, the Kolkata Police will be able to detect who is responsible for pulling down these hoardings.

The official added that a number of government hoardings of the various government departments have been placed in such a way that these social message bearing-hoardings have disappeared from public view.

“Some local clubs and even Kolkata Municipal Corporation councillors have put up hoardings like blood donation camps, pujas, cultural programmes etc. in such a manner that our hoardings have gone under cover,” the official said.