Amritsar municipal polls: Flex printers told to check NoC before publishing advertisement

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 28

In the wake of upcoming elections, the Municipal Corporation (MC) has asked flex board printers and printing press owners not to violate the advertisement policy of the state.

Hardeep Singh, joint commissioner, MC, conducted a meeting with prominent flex printers and instructed them to ask for NoC of MC before printing any flex board, hoarding or other publicity material.

The MC officials found that commercial organisation, brand stores, shopping complex, political and religious activists were defacing the city regularly. The advertisement wing, which is already facing shortage of staff, has made regular efforts to remove illegal hoardings and flex boards from the city markets.

Now, elections are just round the corner and defacement would increase in the city.

Sushant Bhatia, in-charge advertisement wing, said: “Displaying any advertisement board or hoarding is not illegal but the party concerned should take NoC from the MC to display boards and deposit the charges. As per the advertisement policy of the government, no printer can publish any board or publicity material without the approval of the MC. The practice of defacement keeps out staff busy round the clock. It is quite risky to remove hoardings from height and electricity poles. So, we have decided to curb the practice,” Bhatia said.

Earlier, the advertisement wing had identified eight commercial organisations, who were defacing the city regularly. The MC Commissioner had written to the Police Commissioner to register FIRs against eight persons, who were defacing the city regularly.