Signs of trouble: Defaced signboards turn an eye sore in city

Trichy: Visitors to the city and even residents find it difficult to explore and access many residential streets and get travel directions as the reflective street signboards placed by Trichy City Corporation (TCC) were defaced by advertisers and private firms without showing any civic sense. The residents have sought the civic body to identify the culprits and penalise them.

Through the Tamil Nadu Urban Road Infrastructure Fund (TURIF), road projects taken up in urban local bodies will also earmark funds for erecting street signages. Apart from TURIF, the civic body also place signboards on arterial roads and in residential streets using corporation general fund. Among the 3,000 streets spread across the 65 wards of TCC, reflective signages have been erected in a majority of the streets. However, the signboards with reflective blue stickers on which street’s name were embossed in bold white letters are defaced with advertisement bills. “Street signboards in Srirangam and Thiruvanaikoil localities have often become the targets of offenders. This would project a bad opinion about the city among the visitors,” K P Rangaprasad, joint secretary, Satta Panchayat movement said.

The corporation workers find it difficult to remove the posters without damaging the reflective stickers. As the miscreants glue posters hard on to the signboards, the street’s name fades away over a period of time. It accounts to wasting public money, besides defeating the city’s fight to be the state’s cleanest city. Official sources said that the civic body has been spending Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 in erecting a signboard made of stainless steel. Though the authorities are entitled to invoke Tamil Nadu Public Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act, 1992, least is being done on this account. “Comparatively such practice has come down. We have instructed the junior engineers and officials concerned to be on vigil in penalising the culprits who deface the signboards,” a senior official with Trichy Corporation said. Sources said that Rs 500 can be fined on the offenders.

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Expense

Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 per reflective street signage board

Signage boards defaced

Chennai trunk road, Melachinthamani

Sundarraj Nagar, Subramaniapuram

Veereshwaram, Srirangam

Lourdusamy Pillai street, KK Nagar