They are a blot on the valley’s beauty. The haphazardly placed hoarding boards have tarnished the capital’s image alright; they also pose a risk to public safety. In recent times there have been many incidents of commuters getting injured when the poorly placed hoarding boards fell upon them. The Kathmandu Metropolitan City is thus perfectly entitled to remove them.
But the so-called ‘hoarding board entrepreneurs’ seem hell-bent to stop it and protect their prerogative to mar the city’s image, through any means possible. They have been picketing outside the KMC office demanding that the anti-hoarding board campaign be halted. In the next phase of their protest, they have threatened to enforce a vehicular strike, followed by valley banda. [break]
And if all else fails, they are apparently ready to sit on a fast-unto-death. This desperation can be read more as a sign of the state of lawlessness in the country than a matter of principle. Unlike what the protestors have been claiming, hoarding board advertising is hardly a bread and butter issue for most people involved in this business.
Recently, ‘water entrepreneurs’ went on an indefinite strike when some bottling plants were flagged for producing substandard bottled water. Eventually, the government was forced to take a back step, even though the bottlers were clearly in breach of the Essential Supplies Act which stipulates that supply of vital necessities like water and medicine cannot be obstructed under any pretext.
Then there were the ‘gold entrepreneurs’ who threatened to unleash hell if any obstacle was placed to prevent them from cheating customers. Now it is the turn of the ‘hoarding board entrepreneurs’ to try to get the government to bend to their wishes. What all these people have in common is that they are trying to play in the vacuum created by the prolonged political instability and absence of an elected government. They know very well that the caretaker government, which is in office with the sole mandate of holding CA polls, cannot act with the authority of an elected government.
That said, common people have room to doubt government intent as well. For instance, while hoarding boards of most products have been removed, those of a few select products seem untouched. It can’t be that the government is after the big money on offer: KMC has already clarified that it is ready to forgo revenues from hoarding boards in its attempt to clean up Kathmandu and make it safe for commuters. Unless there is uniform application of law, the public will continue to be skeptical and protestors will continue to find an excuse to keep pressing with their misbegotten demands. It is also about time the government came up with a clear policy on the areas where there can be no advertising, for instance at the sites of historic importance and natural heritage.
Time might also have come to cap advertising of companies that are looking to monopolize the market through their overwhelming financial muscles. The dominant private players, for their part, should realize that there is a thing called advertising overkill. It will undoubtedly be a big challenge for the technocratic government to deal with these issues of public interest judiciously. What people are hoping is that it will put up a decent fight—with adequate backing of the political parties that put it in place.
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