Banners won’t fly for a few corporators

Several politicians are refraining from putting up flexes and hoardings, say door-to-door interaction more effective in building rapport with voters

Banners won't fly for a few corporators

Several politicians are refraining from putting up flexes and hoardings, say door-to-door interaction more effective in building rapport with voters

Eyesore: It's a common practice to put up hoardings during festivals
and birthdays of leaders. Representation pic

BJP corporator Ashok Yenpure from Subhash Nagar ward who himself proposed au00a0 banner-free city before the General Body (GB) of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) questioned the corporators' need to garner publicity.

Civic menace: Illegal hoardings, which consist of political advertisements,
birthdays of politicos and festival wishes, are a common sight on city
roads and pavements. representation pic

"I always wanted to highlight that door-to-door interaction is a more effective way to build rapport with your voters than to display garish colourful hoardings," said Yenpure. Yenpure stopped putting up banners 10 years ago and only puts them up if they are related to public awareness programmes. He also uses social networking sites to keep the people aware of issues that make the city ugly.

Illegal hoardings generally consist of political advertisements, birthdays of politicos and festival wishes.
MNS corporator from Koregaon Park, Rajendra (Babu) Wagaskar is also among the few politicians who have not displayed banners for the last six years. "I visit every house hold as many as six times a year. Our party leaders have also advised us against using hoardings in the past."

NCP corporator Bapurao Karne Guruji from Yerawada ward has also stayed away from the self publicity by not displaying political hoardings in his ward, said residents of Yerawada. Dr Sanjyot Apte, a political science professor from SP College, said newcomers to politics require banners and other forms of street publicity to establish themselves.

"The popularity and voter connect of old players is determined by their actual work. A few politicians have also realised the civic menace caused by banners and thus the trend to scrap hoardings," said Apte. Tehseen Poonawala, founder of city-based NGO 'India at 2047', who also runs the activity Zero Posters against the illegal hoardings, said: "We are aiming for a banner-free city irrespective of the purpose of the hoarding. I would still call it a good initiative by corporators which should be emulated by their party colleagues and political opponents."u00a0

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels