Bright coloured flag poles of the BJP have replaced the traditional flex boards and cut-outs on the Chennai-Bengaluru Highway (NH 44) between Vellore and Kandaneri village, near the Pallikonda toll plaza and a distance of 23 km, where Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed a public meeting on Sunday.
Except for the venue at Kandaneri, where a large number of unauthorised flex boards were erected, the rest of the stretch was dotted with party flag poles on the median.
The Union Minister was in Vellore to highlight the achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nine-year rule. “The BJP did not seek permission from us for such installations. However, flex boards that are erected around the venue of the event are illegal. Action will be taken on it,” said K. Sudhakar, Block Development Officer (BDO), Anaicut taluk (Vellore).
Officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which maintains the national highway, said the patrol team was advised to remove unauthorised hoardings, banners, and flex boards on the highway as it would endanger the lives of motorists. As and when such boards were erected on the stretch, they would be removed once the patrol team spotted them.
“We don’t give permission to erect such banners and flex boards on the national highways, including on the service lanes. We remove them even if someone keeps them a day before any event,” said R. Jayakumar, site engineer, NHAI-Vellore.
Revenue Department officials said the absence of such flex boards and banners along the route on Sunday comes in the wake of a warning issued by the Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration Department on June 9 that legal action would be taken against those who erected unauthorised hoardings, banners and flex boards. This comes after three persons died in Coimbatore after a private hoarding collapsed and fell on them a week ago.
