Kathmandu is a city of temples and it is only right that the aesthetic beauty of this cultural city be maintained and not compromised for a little revenue Officials at the Kathmandu Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) deserve a pat on the back for immediately swinging into action to pull down the hoarding boards strewn across the commercial areas of this beautiful city, following a front page story in this daily on Thursday. The KMC has initiated the campaign of removing the hoarding and flex boards on the eve of the second Investment Summit, scheduled to begin in the capital on Friday. The hoarding and flex boards are an eyesore, and you see them everywhere -- on rooftops, verandas, sides of buildings, utility poles and open grounds. These advertising boards not only conceal the temples and monuments behind them but also obscure the views of the Himalayas that add scenery to this ancient city. No one knows exactly how many billboards there are in the city. By the KMC’s own account, it has given permission for only about 100 of them, but a walk through the city will reveal that there are many more illegal advertisers. The billboards have not only defaced the city, they are also a potential hazard to the safety of the pedestrians walking on the road below. If only the advertisers had followed the KMC’s regulations, the billboards would have been less of a hazard. It is illegal to put up commercial hoarding boards on additional frames on rooftops and verandas of private and public houses. But this is rarely followed. Many of the hoarding boards also hang from the walls lining the pavement, which could collapse under their weight during a major disaster like an earthquake, causing severe injury to pedestrians. The regulations also require a security audit from certified technicians to put up a hoarding board of over 200 square feet. But one comes across billboards of almost every size and at almost every place, including monumental zones. This shows laxity on the party of the KMC officials in carrying out their responsibilities. The campaign to right what went wrong has just begun, and, hopefully, it is not a one-time drive aimed at hoodwinking the general public. The campaign to make the city beautiful must not be done for the heck of it and needs to be carried out religiously. One of the reasons why any campaign in this country, carried out by the government, national or local, loses steam over time is that it does not take full ownership of it. A campaign begun by the government some years back to stop the littering or heaping of garbage in the streets through heavy fines was close to becoming a success story, when it was suddenly dropped mid-way. The billboards are a good source of revenue for the KMC, and it would be very tempting to give in to the pressure of the advertisers sooner than later. The KMC, however, should not yield to pressure from the business community, who must now look to other channels of advertising their products. Kathmandu is a city of temples and monuments, and it is only right that the aesthetic beauty of this cultural city be maintained and not compromised for a little revenue. Now that Kathmandu has taken the initiative to remove the hoarding boards in a bid to make the city beautiful and safe, other municipalities, especially those in the neighbourhood, would do well to follow suit. Right initiative It is just 14 months since a helpline service was launched by the National Women Commission to address problems faced by women. More women have come forward to lodge their complaints against sexual or domestic violence. Since the helpline came into operation on December 10, 2017, as many as 15,022 cases of violence against women have been registered at the commission. Earlier, not more than 350 cases were registered annually. The commission says around 85 per cent of the cases are related to domestic violence while the rest are related to rape, cybercrime, inability to get legal documents and polygamy. The commission is also supporting the victims to get legal aid, psychological counseling, education and shelter. It is also providing vocational training to the women victims. A woman who suffers from any kind of violence can lodge a complaint against the perpetrator(s), and the process of lodging the complaint is very simple. The initiative taken by the commission is commendable. But lodging complaints through the helpline alone will not help minimise such cases. The concerned authorities must take prompt legal action against the perpetrator(s) to provide justice to the victims.