Caution: Stick it and be ready to spend time behind bars

Four youngsters were sentenced to three months in jail after they
were caught sticking posters. DNA asks if the threat of imprisonment can be a potent deterrent against the menace.

Expert view
Wall Project aimed at adding colour to plain ramparts
Volunteers started the Wall Project as they had a desire to transform blank walls. The  idea of the Wall Project is to create an image or a representation which stays in the people’s mind. They must make bring a smile or make them think. We want to give Mumbai a character. We noticed that people were taking the same road repeatedly, and as you pass by a place often, every time you start to notice something new. Somehow we felt the walls could use a dash of colour. The response so far is supportive and enthusiastic. We have no say in the illegal posters that are put up across the city. The Wall Project is just a belief that it is our place and it’s an open forum, an area driven concept where people take ownership of their area and beautify it.
—Parag Gandhi, member, The Wall Project

Taskforce needed to stop defacement
The youngsters who are usually sticking posters are doing it to earn some money, basically for their livelihood and to support their families. They should arrest those people who are actually involved in making the advertisement bills and also those who have employed them for sticking them. Such sudden arrests will not deter anyone from defacing the city, because it is not a consistent campaign, but a rare occurrence. Severe punishment should be meted out to government officials, who do not guard public buildings and monuments. They should have security guards for round-the-clock protection and spreading proper awareness about keeping the megapolis clean through various methods. Only then can they institute punishment for someone who is breaking the law and defacing the monuments or the city.
—Tejas Sejpal, businessman

Get miscreants to clean up
Those youngsters who stick advertisement stickers and posters hail from the economically deprived sections of society. They won’t mind spending time in jail, if they get to make some few bucks on the side. Therefore, I don’t think the move will deter people from defacing the city. Instead, the authorities should try and nab the miscreants and make them wash or peel off the stickers they have put on.
—Tiana Quinny, sales executive

Curb sleazy advertisements too
Those involved in the same can seek easy bail, so it doesn’t make any difference to them. Even the existing laws are hardly implemented. Those who stick bills are mostly urchins who have scant regard for the law. Law-abiding citizens are need to maintain public property. Moreover, some posters are obscene and humiliate women, but they are freely available in public domain.    —Vanmala BN, educator

Regular action more effective
We need to have proper restrictions and rules in place, rather than having such random drives and arresting a few people, to create a scare among others. However, despite a ban on sticking hoardings, politicians and political parties get away. Defacing the city with posters of a wide variety is a common thing in the city as well as the local trains. There is no steady or constant campaign against the same.
—Harshala Sherlekar, student

Lack of civic sense to blame
The government should not make scapegoats out of a few people. There must be consistent action again the menace, only then will a jail term deter others. Punishment for defacing the city should be the norm, rather than an aberration. It’s deplorable the way this country’s citizens seem to have no regard for heritage monuments and have no civic sense at all. More than punishment, vigilance is the key.
—Ankita Shreeram, student