They scraped city's walls clean of eyesore

Bengaluru: They are on a mission -- to erase the many scars on Bengaluru's being. On Sunday, scores of civic leaders being groomed by B.PAC, a collective of eminent individuals from Bengaluru, scourged vast swathes of the city removing illegal bills, posters, banners and stickers from trees, pillars dividers, flyovers.
The campaign, #killbill, was taken up by the B.CLIP Civic Hub Initiative floated by B.PAC.While B.CLIP seeks to train and support talented individuals wishing to assume the civic leadership mantle, the hub initiative aims to strengthen these individuals' engagement with civic issues at the ward level.
Armed with scrapers, cutters, knives, blades and water sprays, volunteers of B.CLIP Civic Hubs, along with groups of locals and activists, started as early as 6.45 in the morning. Accompanied by locals and interested individuals, they went about pulling down illegal posters and bills in Sanjaynagar, Radhakrishna, HSR Layout, Sampangiramnagar, Prakashnagar, Gayathrinagar, Jayanagar, Indiranagar, Mahalakshmi Layout and Domlur.
About 90% of the posters removed pertained to ads on paying guest accommodation. The rest were about kindergartens, home loans and political events/individuals. The scraped material was ferried to BBMP's dry waste collection centres in trucks.
Sanjaynagar hub leader Subbaiah TS and Geetha G said, "#killbill will be carried out in phases on a fortnightly basis. We want to send out a clear message that citizens won't tolerate any kind of damage to public property."
Kavitha Reddy, member of HSR Layout hub, said SMSs were sent to locals asking them to keep an eye on defaulters. "Illegal posters tarnish the beauty of the city and we aim to put an end to this mess. We know it is a long process but we will take one step at a time," she added.
"Citizens have shown interest in the campaign. We shall conduct more such drives across the city and advocate sustainable measures to make our city free of visual pollution," said Revathy Ashok, CEO, B.PAC.
- Sharanya P Harish