Students remind Corporation of its duties

Almost immediately after taking oaths on waste management, it seems the Corporation of Thiruvananthapuram forgot to clean up after itself.

Several posters of its ‘City Protection’ convention held on Saturday still graced the boundary walls of St Joesph’s Higher Secondary School as of Tuesday. And that too, right next to the ‘Stick No Bills’ sign.

A petition to take immediate action was submitted to Mayor K Chandrika by the students, represented by school leader Sachin Prince. “After their programme held at our school on Saturday (November 17) there were posters of the programme at many places on the compound walls,” he said. “Following this, some other people also stuck advertisements on the walls,” he added, echoing the sentiments of  students, who were upset over the incident.

Backing his students, school staff secretary Shammi Lawrence said, “We humbly ask the authorities to allow us to maintain our school premises clean and take stern action against those who have desecrated them.”

When contacted, Mayor K Chandrika said that immediate action would be taken to clear the posters from the school walls.

In order to prevent such trespass of civil rights, the Kerala Prevention of Defacement of Property Bill had been mooted in 2002, which sought to punish those who deface properties open to public view by pasting posters or marking in ink or paint. “Since this is a less serious offence, the issue usually gets resolved with a legal notice being sent to the offending party to remove the posters,” said Sreekala S, an advocate in the District Court here.