WHOS RESPONSIBILITY?

By Nabin Silwal
nabinsilwal@gmail.com
The numerous posters and hoarding boards hung chaotically are defacing our
beautiful city Kathmandu day by day. Once these convenient and cheap medium of
advertisements are hung, whose responsibility is it to take it out? Who is
responsible?
Of many alternative mediums available for advertisement, people prefer the use of
posters for publicity because of it is simple and easy to use. Made of paper, these
posters slowly lose their gloss and color due to sun and rain. Once the message of
these posters have reached their audience, due to the lack of proper disposal of
these posters, the beauty of the city, posters remain tattered and torn in city walls.
olitical parties, !lm industries, social and educational organi"ations, business
enterprises and religious group, no group or organi"ation has spared the city with
their posters. The use of posters hapha"ardly is an increasing trend among all
organi"ations and institutions.
osters pasted on tra#c signs and dividers are ha"ards claim city drivers as they
are no longer visible. $am %ahadur Tamang, a bus driver shared his e&perience '(t
night, when we turn on the headlight, dividers can be seen clearly even from a
distance. %ut when posters are put up in the dividers we can)t see them.* Kuber
Kadayat, +, of Tra#c olice Kathmandu says that those posters on the roadside
distract drivers and may lead to accidents. -e added 'The posters and hoarding
boards pasted hapha"ardly often block tra#c signs. .irstly it is a disturbance, and
secondly it can even cause accidents. (s these are ha"ard for drivers and
pedestrians alike that might lead to accidents, management of posters is very
important.* The numerous posters and pamphlets hung on walls and electricity
poles makes one wonder if there is some sort of competition as to who can cover
the most area with their posters? Whether it is the administrative center of the city,
,ingha +urbar or elsewhere, there is only limited space not claimed by posters.
The Kathmandu Metropolitan /ity states that the use of posters in public spaces is
illegal.
(ccording to $am d. oudel, ,ection O#cer of Kathmandu Metropolitan /ity,
'Kathmandu Metropolitan has a de!ned law that states that it is illegal to paste
posters anywhere in the metropolitan area.* 0ven colleges and universities are no
e&ceptions to the use of posters. 1naware of one)s responsibility, there isn)t any
instance where the student groups and organi"ations take the initiative to remove
their own posters from college walls. 2nstead of spreading words of wisdom and
ideals, college walls are being vandali"ed with slogans such as '3indabad 4
Murdabad.* ,hiv Kumar ,hah, student leader of Madheshi ,tudent 1nion of ,arswati
/ollege blamed the college management for not having the proper regulations
against usage of posters, '2f there were proper laws and regulations against usage
of posters in the college and penalties for posturing, then such activities would have
stopped. %ut, colleges doesn)t have such regulations in place so rampant poster
usage is ongoing.*
+espite the need to keep the colleges and universities clean, the student unions
themselves resort to posturing. 2t is appropriate for them to say such activities can
be stooped by making rules? 2f they want, students can keep their college
surrounding clean without a binding regulation. The campus chief of ,araswati
/ollege, $amhari ,harma 5amsal re6uests to use another alternative rather then
posters 4 pamphlets to inform about their programs 'We)ve already made a notice
board for students to circulate their message. 2 want to re6uest all the student union
to post their messages in proper place. They have to begin this culture from
themselves. -and leaf can be better alternative for posters with proper disposal.* 2n
other countries, the posters 4 pamphlets are not used in an unmanaged way as in
ours for movie publicity, says $amesh %udhathoki, .ilm +irector 'Movies are made
in 0uropean countries and they also print posters too. %ut, unlike here, you don)t
seem them hanging posters any and everywhere.*
(ttempts are being made to control those posters 4 pamphlets that are dis!guring
the city, says Kathmandu Metropolitan /ity O#ce. 'Through public newspapers we
often publish notice urging people not to use posters and also through our television
program '-amro Kathmandu*. -owever, we haven)t held discussions with business
people and we don)t think that is very important either as business should
understand this.* says $am d. oudel, ,ection O#cer of Kathmandu Metropolitan
/ity.
While attempts are being made to control posters 4 pamphlet, their use hasn)t
declined yet .Moreover, the use seems to be on the rise like there is no other
alternative. Organi"ations and businesses alike have not paid much attention to the
management of poster after use says the chief spokesman of 1M5, radip 7yawali
'When posters are hung for a certain ob8ective, once that is met they should be
taken out by the advertisers. -owever, it seems that people are negligent about
their responsibility to maintain the beauty of our city.*
2s it appropriate to leave the posters as it is once it has directly or indirectly ful!lled
its purpose? 2n order to control such rampant use of posters and pamphlets, the
Metropolitan should immediately draft and enact the code of conduct for posters.
-owever, do we always need a law to do our civic duty? 2f not, then why don)t we
act as civili"ed citi"ens and remove those posters and pamphlets after we use them
for advertising? 2t is our responsibility to keep Kathmandu neat and tidy. 5et us
make our city beautiful and let)s each one of us begin this campaign from today.