Updated at 10 pm

Belthangady, Oct 05: Belthangady Taluk Panchayat Executive Officer has assured activist Shekhar Laila of removing the illegal banners and flex by October 8.

Strongly objecting the failure of the officials to clear illegal banners and flex and also demanding action against the officials who failed to clear these, Dalita Hakkugala Samiti president Shekhar Laila held a protest outside Taluk Panchayat office on Monday.

In a letter, Belthangady Taluk Panchayat Executive Officer has assured to take steps to remove the illegal flex and bannes by October 8 through Panchayat Development Officers (PDOs).

He has assured to give necessary directions to all the Panchayats in this regard.

“Officials have assured to remove the banners by October 8 and I will wait till then. If they failed to keep up their promise, then I will continue my fight,” Shekhar said.

Filed at 3.07 pm

Activist protests against banner menace

Belthangady, Oct 05: It was a one-man protest against illegal banners by activist Shekhar Laila.

Strongly objecting the failure of the officials to clear illegal banners and flex and also demanding action against the officials who failed to clear these, Dalita Hakkugala Samiti president Shekhar Laila held a protest outside Taluk Panchayat office on Monday.

All the illegal banners and flex should be removed. Action should be taken against the PDOs and the EO who failed in their duty

Shekhar Laila

“The Taluk has 48 Gram Panchayats and 81 villages. Every village is dotted with banners and flex cutouts erected. Many of them have been put up without any permission from the Panchayats. Most of these flex and banners are of Belthangady MLA and his men,” Shekhar alleged.

“There are examples where flex worth ₹2 lakhs are put up greeting the leaders for the inauguration of the developmental works worth ₹ 10 lakh. You can imagine the sorry state,” he said.

Shekhar had written to the Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner, Chief Executive Officer of Zilla Panchayat, Tahsildar, and also Executive Officer of Taluk Panchayat about this on March 13. Following this, the Tahsildar had written to the Executive Officer on March 23. On April 20 the Chief Executive Officer too rushed a letter to the EO to take necessary action.

“Between April and September, the EO wrote six letters to the Panchayat Development Officers (PDOs) of the Panchayats. But none of them took any driver to remove the illegal banners,” he added.

Shekhar held a protest today demanding the removal of all the banners and also action against the PDOs who failed to follow the rules and also against the EO who too failed in his duty.

“As per rules, any banner has to put up with permission and by paying the fixed fee to the Panchayat. If we consider the fee of a banner as ₹100 then 100 banners would mean a loss of ₹10,000 in one village. We can calculate the amount of revenue loss to the government,” he said.

CPIM leader Advocate Shivakumar S M, Congress leaders including Former MLA Vasanth Bangera, Ranjan Gowda, Advocate Manohar Kumar Ilanthila met Shekhar Laila and extended their support.