Pedestrians face difficulty entering the Kempegowda complex due to a huge Sankranti wish banner blocking the entrance of Chickpet in Bengaluru on Friday. | Photo credit: ALLEN EGENUSE J
Despite the ban being in place, Bengaluru continues to be inundated with illegal hoardings across corporations, posing a threat to public safety and blocking pedestrian routes in many cases.
Before Sankranti, the city was littered with hoarding that turned into an eyesore. Citizens may have experienced hoarding every 100 meters or less in areas such as Shantinagar, BTM Layout, Jayanagar, Vijayanagar and RR Nagar.
At Srinivagilu Road near Ejipura on Wednesday, party workers erected a tall simple arch, at least 30 to 40 feet long, featuring Ramalinga Reddy and Sowmya Reddy. There were also billboards with CK Ramamurthy on many streets in South Bengaluru.
Corporations conducted the approval process on Friday.
Authorization
A senior official of the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) said that during the festival season, corporate offices receive hundreds of requests for permission to install billboards. “We are allowing a few with a specific deadline in certain hours keeping in mind religious sentiments. But if we don’t remove them even after the program is over, we will call for action,” the officer said.
In many cases, event organizers and those who install billboards just ask for permission but don’t bother to wait for approval. “They just go ahead and install banners regardless of whether permission is granted or not. In many cases, people don’t ask for permission at all,” the officer said, adding that such elements are fined heavily, yet they continue to repeat the violation.
Officials said many event organizers were breaking the law and then paying fines, and stressed the need to review the existing fine structure. Currently, fines of ₹1,000 and above are levied in the city depending on the extent of the violation. Cops are also registering cases under the Karnataka Open Places (Prevention of Mutilation) Act. Even in such cases, the accused pays the fine and goes free.
Karan P., a resident of Koramangala, noted that enforcement was poor and pointed out several lapses that had gone unexplained for months in the entire area.
The erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike introduced a mud and tractor system to help clear debris and clear encroachments in the city. R. Rajagopalan of the Bengaluru Coalition, a collective of civil society organisations, said he rarely sees tractors deployed under the mud and tractor program to remove such sags.
A senior police officer said, “You will see that most of these flexi are festival greetings in the name of politicians or messages welcoming them to events. Very rarely, ordinary individuals are fined for illegally installing flexi.”
According to the officer, even during drives, party workers often ask officials to first remove flexes from rival politicians installed elsewhere before removing their own. This often leads to civic association officials refraining from strictly enforcing the law.
Mr. Rajagopalan suggested that the GBA should take a proactive approach and convene a meeting with the Municipal Corporation Commissioners and the Police Department and draft a strict and consistent Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to remove illegal hoardings across the Corporations.
Published – 16 Jan 2026 21:14 IST