The Kathmandu Metropolitan City is now removing hoarding boards from designated areas of the district unless they are registered with the government. The city streets are lined with such boards, many of which, however, are erected without the consent of the municipal authorities. The KMC has identified several areas of importance such as heritage sites, temples and public places as out of bounds for commercial billboards. Nevertheless, people continue to erect scaffoldings or the boards irrespective of the prohibition order. Many people have neither registered their hoardings with the authorities nor removed those deemed illegal. The drive is now underway in full swing and more than 40 illegal boards have been pulled down by the KMC authorities. So far, 529 hoarding boards are registered with the KMC although there are many more unregistered ones.

Hoarding boards erected at random are indeed a menace. Rickety scaffoldings erected in a bid to be more eye-catching than the others are likely to topple, threatening commuters and pedestrians. The traffic inconvenience such mishaps cause is dwarfed in the face of risk they pose to life and property. In many cases boards stare down from high-rises. Should they give way at one point, which is very likely as maintenance is almost unheard of, the loss they might cause is obvious. More than that, unorganised structures are an eyesore and obstruct the skyline. Wayward graffiti scribbled in different parts of the city and banners hanging from unlikely places have only helped spoil the city’s natural looks. The irresponsible attitude adopted in erecting those few boards whose messages contradict with the symbolic significance of religious and cultural sites from where the former stand has irked the public, but little has been done to stop it.

Moves to pull down hoarding boards were also undertaken in previous years, but in a half-hearted way. Unless the KMC comes out with a pragmatic measure to keep the vigil against illegal boards, pulling out just a few of them would not solve the problem. The time has also come to monitor what is written on the boards. The public is often subjected to harsh, sexist or sometimes even racial slurs through them. Some of them are even blamed for distracting the drivers, thus causing accidents. For now, because the KMC has left the option open except in designated sites through registration of illegal hoarding boards, anyone wishing to stay their edifices have a way out. But it should not take prodding and prompting for a conscious citizen to erect or pull down boards. It is time the public applied for registration and paid the taxes too. But it is also time the KMC became steadfast about ending this cat and mouse game.