If this works, the BMC will have struck the most harmonious balance between earning itself some extra moolah and making the city less of an eyesore. Starting September, political banners started fetching the BMC revenue on par with that received from commercial banners, after the corporation hiked the rates for putting up political banners by a whopping 350 per cent, from Rs 40 per square metre to Rs 150 per square metre.

And that’s not all. For every additional square metre of space, the charge now is Rs 100 per square metre, in stark contrast to the modest Rs 25 charged earlier for every extra square metre. This means that politicians who would have to pay Rs 65 for a two square metre poster now have to cough up Rs 250 for a poster of the same dimensions.