I Love My Kochi – Let’s fight against visual pollution

My Dear Friends, 

 Kochi-the princess of the Arabian sea has been trapped in a visual pollution. Every nook and corner of the city is filled with huge flex boards and posters. These publicity stunts even disrupts the traffic. We must wipe out these eye sores from our sights to make the city clean. Until then we just cannot make any claim in this regard. Billboards are juxtaposed like the huge cut outs of the Tamil Actors. Flex printing becomes compulsory even for a petty function held in a ward. It must be noted that most of these boards are erupted with no consent. And hence, remain illegal.

Clean roads are a matter of pride. Keeping  them clean is a culture. The tendency to use roads as the exhibition outlets should not be entertained. “ Flex board culture” is new word that connotes the new age vanity. Some are trying to make everything a billboard and market themselves. This must be stopped.

The pace of the advertisements emerging  on the streets are alarming. Political parties and organizations are making the “flex culture” inevitable in their existence. Celebrities from the tinsel town as well as the cricket players are standing every where as huge cut outs and thus make a great wall within. Why can’t we take a different turn? 

A former cricketer has tweeted about  the neatness of our city.  It seems, he wish if India had  transformed like this city. His tweet is a matter of pride for us. And thanks for those kind words.

I LOVE MY KOCHI campaign focuses at the task of delinking itself from the ugly billboards that spoils the natural beauty of this coastal town. The first phase of the task has been started by removing the obstructing posters and boards from the city roads. Illegal boards are masking the scenic charm of the city. Plastic flex poses a major threat to the fragile eco system too. Hence,   I LOVE MY KOCHI campaign indirectly supports the cause of the environment. There are at least 200 flex making centers in Kerala. Many have flourished in our city too. We, the corporation is not going for a witch- hunt against the flex makers to uproot the entire industry. But we are very firm on removing any object that kills the beauty of the city. So, the flexes that comes in this line will not be spared. That is a policy matter. Should we keep these obstructing objects in our roads? We all owe an answer for this question. If your answer is no, then let us join hands to make Kochi beautiful. 

Anticipating your co operation

with love

your mayor

Tony Chammany