Citizens paint over illegal posters on walls of Greater Noida

Members of a residents’ group — Active Citizen Team — rolled up their sleeves and painted over the phone numbers listed on the posters near a commercial complex in Sector Alpha-1 of Greater Noida.

Troubled with the continuous defacement of city’s walls by illegal posters, a citizens’ team in Greater Noida took it upon itself to paint the posters as a sign of protest on Sunday morning.

The residents will approach the chief executive officer of Greater Noida on Tuesday to seek action against offenders. (HT Photo)

Members of a residents’ group — Active Citizen Team — rolled up their sleeves and painted over the phone numbers listed on the posters near a commercial complex in Sector Alpha-1 of Greater Noida.

Residents said that the move will stop the commercial purpose behind putting up of these illegal posters, which deface the city’s walls.

Three months ago, the same group had removed hundreds of posters from the walls adjacent to the five-kilometre stretch of road in Sector Alpha-1.

“We had taken this drastic step three months ago when the Greater Noida authority did not pay attention to our requests.We decided to remove those posters on our own. We were deeply pained to notice that the same walls have been defaced with illegal posters again,” said Harinder Bhati, president, Active Citizen Team, Greater Noida.

This time, the citizen’s team had something else in mind as they reached the defaced spot with paint and brushes.

“We painted over the posters in a manner that the names and phone numbers of the advertising company gets hidden and their commercial interest is not fulfilled,” said Bhati.

“We will keep these posters this way for the next two or three days, so that people concerned also notice what they (people who put those posters) have done with our city’s walls. We will then remove them,” she said.

The team will now approach the chief executive officer of Greater Noida on Tuesday demanding strict action against those who paste posters illegally in the region.

“We believe that some personnel of Greater Noida authority are hand in gloves with these companies and organisations which put up posters and deface our walls repeatedly. We demand strict action against them,” said Bhati.

Debasish Panda, chief executive officer of Greater Noida authority, said, ”We will enquire the facts first and then take suitable action. The complainants are most welcome to my office.”