Defacement of city walls has been a common feature in our cities. I
recall when I went to Calcutta for the first time in 1984 I was amazed to see
all the walls – public or private –plastered over with slogans, ads or
campaigns of the local government. Not an inch of the whites of the walls would
be visible. West Bengal had a Communist Party of India (Marxist) government
then. Likewise, during my posting in the North-East I visited Agartala somewhere
around 1989, the capital of Tripura in the far eastern corner of the country on
the other side of Bangladesh. There, too, all walls, public or private, were
written over in blue or black or communist red. Tripura was also being ruled by
CPI (M), as it is till today, being the only communist ruled state in the
country. It appeared, defacing the walls was the hall mark of communist regimes.
I was told it was the “red” cadres in every locality who used to deface the
walls, of course, on orders from their senior comrades. While Calcutta – now
Kolkata – has got over the propensity to deface the city walls I do not know
whether Tripura too has shed this tendency.
Surprisingly, situated far away from Kolkata or Agartala, Bhopal seems
to have somehow caught the infection that makes private or public agencies to
deface walls. All of us have to pass through the Civil Lines or Link Road No.1
and are presented with the spectacle walls written over with government
campaigns. One stretch of wall of Hamidia College and the Circuit House was
given away during the mayoralty of Sunil Sood to the students to try their hand
in painting it with whatever caught their fancy. In fact at that time there was
a campaign in the newspapers about defacement of public walls and Sunil Sood
had taken a decision to ban defacement of walls. However, quite curiously, the
government agencies themselves are now writing slogans on the city walls.
In the Civil Lines area the wall
of State Archives and Polytechnic as also elsewhere the slogans of Swachchata
Mission are written all over for considerable stretches. It did not seem to
have occurred to the authorities concerned that mere writing of slogans in
myriad well-contrived language would not ensure cleanliness. What is needed is
concrete action by government’s own agencies or the civic body to rid the city
of muck and dirt. All along the Link Road, too, the slogans relating to
government’s social campaigns can be seen, though some of them are now,
mercifully, obstructed from view by the growing shrubbery.
Thus the state government is
breaching the Municipal Corporation’s ban orders with great facility. It has
done so on numerous other occasions like running the cruise and motor boats on
the Upper Lake despite a ban imposed by the municipality as far back as 2005.
But, the Corporation is unable to gather enough gumption to take action against
the former. The government, obviously, thinks nothing of the Corporation as it
is, after all, its creature, running as it does on the grants doled out by the
former. The menace, however, seems to
have assumed serious proportions as advertisers are now defacing, apart from
public walls, even private walls which so far seem to have been spared the
obnoxious paint and brush. Besides, they are pasting posters on electricity
poles. Not only does it give the whole city a shabby appearance, it also
indicates the lack of aesthetics on the part of all those who indulge in this
reprehensible activity as also those who manage the city. That it also reflects
the Municipal Corporation’s lack of will and teeth to keep the city presentable
in every way is, of course, another matter.
In this connection, one must commend the remarkable work done by the
I-Clean Team of Bhopal which has gone from place to place cleaning up the walls
and bringing order to places where everything they found to be in disarray.
Unfortunately, the effort of this self-less team of ever-increasing voluntary
workers somehow did not rub off on any of the officials of the local civic body
or of the Department of Urban Administration & Development. One expected
that looking at the voluntary workers’ enthusiasm to get rid of the repulsive
state of the many areas thay happened to visit and looking at their deep commitment
to the city, officials concerned and elected representatives too would chip in
to supplement their effort by men and material if not lead the entire campaign
to better effect. Alas, that did not happen. It is not that they do not know
about it; they are all aware of it as the local newspapers have repeatedly
carried the news of the efforts of the I-Clean Team. What appears to me from
this indifference of authorities is that they, besides being unashamed of their
neglect and apathy towards the city, are utterly uncommitted to the city
although working for betterment of the city is what precisely their job is. All
their talks over the years of making the city look as good as Singapore or
Paris were never well-meaning, in fact, that was all gas to hoodwink the
people.
Only recently it was reported that the Chief Minister had claimed that
our state is more beautiful than Singapore, comparing two incomparables in
numerous ways. Nonetheless, in Singapore the government does not deface the
city walls like his government does in Bhopal. Let the CM first have the city
walls cleaned up, remembering that comparisons, apart from being odious, do not
take one anywhere; it is only concrete action that does it. One would have appreciated if the government instead had fostered street art
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