The pavements of a stretch of road from Nandanam to the Chennai Airport has been dotted with scores of banners portraying various stages of Karunanidhi’s political life. This comes despite DMK president MK Stalin warning cadres to not erect banners and flex boards that can cause inconvenience to the public.
These banners, depicting the life history of former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M Karunanidhi, who passed away on August 7, have been erected on footpaths, blocking a major portion for pedestrian movement. Besides, footpaths were broken open to fix the hoardings, causing damage to them.
Sorry state of affairs.
— Pramod Madhav (@madhavpramod1) August 30, 2018
Location - Guindy, adjacent to Chennai airport.
Banners raised portraying @kalaignar89's legacy. But footpaths damaged, blocked in many areas!!
Why destroy public property and no clue how Chennai Corporation allows such acts!!! @mkstalin @JAnbazhagan!? pic.twitter.com/8WPWMfkA36
The latest wave of banner culture comes despite MK Stalin issuing a warning to the DMK cadres to avoid banners, hoarding or flex boards that can cause inconvenience to the people. In a statement released in June, the DMK headquarters Arivalayam also directed the cadres to avoid such publicity materials that cause damage to public property.
The warning was issued after a massive public outcry broke out on the hoardings erected by the DMK cadres near Anna Nagar, for a public meeting that was attended by Stalin.
After the event, Stalin took to Twitter to condemn the banners and warned his party workers to avoid such stunts.
“I reiterate that DMK party cadres must avoid banners, flex, posters, cutouts etc to advertise party-related events. Absolutely no inconvenience must be caused to pedestrians and commuters as a result of public meetings organized by us. When recent reports of instances where disobedience of the party's diktat in this regard came to my notice, I issued stern directions to take corrective steps. The party does not condone any damage to public property and I request all cadres to abide by these directives,” he had tweeted.
While the previous incident was condemned, no DMK leader has spoken yet in the case of banners on Chennai Airport road.
Incidentally, the Madras High Court had banned the erection of hoardings and banners featuring living persons in 2017.