The ugliness of Mumbai's cityscape

Ogden Nash, the brilliant writer of nonsense verse, took inspiration from society and all that it meant, using his skills to brilliantly capture what he saw in poetry. As ‘billboards’ – ‘hoardings’ to Indians – took over the cityscape, he penned this one:

I think that I shall never see A billboard lovely as a tree. Indeed, unless the billboards fall I’ll never see a tree at all.

Which of us who lives in Mumbai doesn’t agree with Nash? If the normal commercial hoardings and banners were not eyesore enough, the politicians have made matters intolerably worse. “Kripashankar Singh — who had famously promised to get on to a bicycle and take down illegal hoardings during Mumbai Mirror’s campaign to rid the city of ugly banners earlier this year — will have a few sore muscles to tend to if he sticks to his word. Over 1,000 illegal hoardings, all with the city Congress chief welcoming President Pratibha Patil, have sprung up on the 25-kilometer stretch from the airport to Vidhan Bhavan. Patil is in the city for the platinum jubilee celebrations of the State Legislature,  reports the Mumbai Mirror. [caption id=“attachment_111684” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The BMC yesterday decided to raise the ante as far as politicians are concerned. AFP Photo”]  [/caption] Thankfully, the BMC yesterday decided to raise the ante as far as politicians are concerned (limited, of course, to legal banners and hoardings). “At present, advertisers have to pay Rs1,000 for a hoarding, while political parties shell out a meagre Rs198 for the same to the BMC. Last month, the Bombay High Court asked the civic body the reason for the disparity in rates. That’s when the BMC pulled up its socks and decided to ramp up the rates. With the revision, the charge for putting up a banner will be Rs165 for the first square metre and Rs100 for every square metre after that. Renting it will cost Rs440. So, political parties will have to pay a minimum of Rs605 for a banner. Until now, they got away by paying just Rs154 for the same,”  reported DNA. The extent to which politicians will go to make the city uglier is best understood by the most recent transgression. “Almost immediately after being sworn-in as chief minister, Prithviraj Chavan instructed supporters not to put up banners and posters congratulating him. Statistics about illegal hoardings put up following his appointment reveal just how important it is for the new CM to transform this restraint into a law. Chavan was named chief minister on 10 November. In two days, over 9,196 illegal banners congratulating him and new deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar came up across the city. In contrast, the number of legal hoardings in all of 2010 was barely 7,435,” says the Times of India. The corruption-ridden BMC is the nodal agency responsible for the outdoor industry in Mumbai — and has repeatedly proven that there is no intent to improve matters. New Delhi, when faced with similar problems, commissioned a study on best practices worldwide and used the findings as a basis for creating a policy for Delhi. “The global review has noted that there are a significant number of cities, which discourage the use of large hoarding within the city. Hoardings are preferred on highways or if these large billboards are allowed within the city limit, then these are restricted to business or already commercial districts and areas. In Delhi, the Urban Arts Commission, the agency mandated with overseeing issues connected to city aesthetics has also made it clear that it wants to ensure against visual clutter. The Commission’s guidelines for outdoor advertisements are based on this premise. The Delhi city policy for outdoor advertisements has been based on the emerging global practices as well as the need to maintain the character of the city,” says the report, which can be read here. There is no need for the BMC to reinvent the wheel and commission a fresh study. All they need to do is to understand what Delhi has done and copy the same. They probably will not; there are too many interests vested in a chaotic and anarchic system which fosters corruption; perhaps the only answer, as is so often the case nowadays, is to appeal to the courts for intervention.