We are following court’s orders on banners: DMK

R.S.Bharathi, the organising secretary of DMK, has stated this in his affidavit filed before the Madras high court on Monday.

Chennai: The DMK party has informed the Madras high court that it has been following the directions of this court relating to erection of illegal hoardings, digital banners, flex boards and cut-outs etc., in its true letter and spirit and will abide by any further directions of this court in this regard.

R.S.Bharathi, the organising secretary of DMK, has stated this in his affidavit filed before the Madras high court on Monday.

Hearing a contempt petition as well as on the death of techie Subhasri on the road due to an AIADMK banner falling on her and a tanker lorry ran over her on September 12 at Pallikaranai, a  division bench comprising Justices M.Sathyanarayanan and N.Seshasayee had on September 13 while recording the statements made by opposition leader and DMK president M.K.Stalin, Chief Minister Edapadi K.Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O.Paneerselvam and the statements made on behalf of PMK and CPI, advising their respective party cadres not to erect banners, said it was open to the political parties to file affidavits. Accordingly, Bharathi filed the present affidavit.

In his affidavit, Bharathi submitted that owing to the catena of orders of this court relating to curbing of illegal digital banners, flex boards and cutouts, and the fact that it causes safety concern, great inconvenience and obstruction to the public, pedestrians as well as to the movement of vehicular traffic, his party’s president M.K.Stalin, when he was functioning as the working president on January 29, 2017, wrote a letter to his cadres and which was published in visual and print media. Through the said letter, he cautioned the DMK party cadres not to resort to erection of such illegal digital banners, flex boards and cut outs in any of the party functions or other functions. Likewise, the party headquarters has also issued instructions to the party functionaries, he added.

He said on a petition filed by the DMK party in 2017 against the illegal erection of hoardings and banners, this court had among other things said, “All arches, display boards, hoardings, placards and banners with poles or frames etc., fixed to and/or dug into the ground, which abut into highways, public streets and pedestrian pavements shall forthwith be removed.  No poles or frames or structures for arches, boards, hoardings, display boards or banners shall be erected on any highway, public road, public passage or pedestrian pathway or pavement. Holes caused on pavements and roads by reason of erection of frames, poles, structures, placards, hoardings, display boards, banners etc shall forthwith be repaired”. Therefore, the DMK party not only abides by the orders of this court but has also been actively seeking to curb the menace of illegal banners, hoardings etc., placed by other parties by approaching this court, he added.

He said this affidavit has been filed in order to place on record before this court, the measures taken by the DMK party in controlling the erection of illegal hoardings, digital banners, flex boards and cut outs, pursuant to the directions of this court in a batch of cases.