Mysuru is called a Royal Heritage City, but for nearly a decade now, it’s become a ‘Flex City.’

There are flex boards and flex hoardings everywhere. They are at Circles, they are atop buildings, they are on trees, they have climbed Chamundi Hill and even crawled into the median of Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway ! 

Our city has been suffering from an illegal hoarding epidemic for 15 years. Attempts have been made to end it… again… and again, but the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) fails again… and again. They have made another attempt but we fear they will fail yet again. 

Day before yesterday, the MCC conducted what can only be described as a ‘Cinderella Operation’ — a midnight flex-removal drive.

MCC, under the cover of darkness, removed illegal banners. But one is forced to ask: Why must enforcement occur at midnight? If the administration is upholding the law, it should do so visibly and confidently.

When enforcement avoids daylight, it suggests hesitation, instead of projecting strength.

MCC should do these drives in broad daylight to send a message that it does not fear implementing the law. If you hide the implementation of the law from those it is meant to regulate, it signals weakness and lack of resolve.

This will only make them think you fear them and this in turn will embolden them and the flex posters will return. Like they have been after every clearance drive.

Why so cynical, one may ask? How can one not be considering that this farce is played out every two years?

In August 2014, the Urban Development Ministry announced that it would fine ‘heavily’ those who erect unauthorised cut-outs, banners or hoardings! What happened? Nothing.

In 2006, the MCC proposed to declare K.R. Circle, Five-Lights Circle, Ramaswamy Circle etc., as ‘hoarding-free’ zones and ban commercial hoardings within 100 metres of heritage sites.

What happened? Nothing.

In 2009, the MCC started an ‘illegal hoarding drive’ to which some people protested and the drive was stopped.

In 2011, the MCC Council passed a resolution banning hoardings in the core heritage areas and said that cases would be filed against violators.

What happened? Nothing.

The penalty for unauthorised disfigurement by advertisement as per The Karnataka Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement) Act, 1981, is punishable with imprisonment and fine.

Has the MCC booked anyone till date? No.

This ineffective drive by authorities has emboldened many, and now, thanks to that, our Circles named after kings, reformers and administrators now resemble medieval announcement squares.

Obituary flexes. Birthday flexes. Political flexes. “Long live our beloved leader” flexes dot our city. The leader, invariably, is speaking on a mobile phone and glowing in three shades lighter than humanly possible, while loyal ‘chamchas’ grin from his chest, stomach and occasionally from anatomically confusing locations. Politicians can stop this menace, but they won’t because flex is an assertion. It is territorial marking.

Politicians thrive and survive on public perception of them being powerful. And peppering the city with posters is one way of doing it.

The problem is not limited to political banners. During Dasara, Government Departments themselves become enthusiastic participants in visual excess.

Poorly designed awareness posters appear on private hoardings. Public spaces are handed over without aesthetic guidelines.

For a city that speaks often of beautification, we display a curious tolerance for ‘uglification.’ Even more troubling is the seasonal nature of enforcement.

Clean-up drives often intensify just before ‘Swachh Survekshan’ inspections or high-profile visits. Once the assessors depart, the flex returns, not tentatively, but triumphantly.

Enforcement that is episodic invites defiance. Consistency alone creates deterrence.

This menace of illegal hoardings cannot be stopped with seasonal drives. It is a perennial problem and needs a perennial solution.

Maybe, like how the Police had ‘Garuda’ vehicles and ‘Cheetah’ bikes for patrolling, MCC also can have a ‘Giraffe’ Jeep — an MCC team in a vehicle with a ladder patrolling the city and tearing down illegal banners.

While our administration constantly talks about the beautification of our city, they encourage its ‘uglification’ by not implementing the law.

Unless MCC really ‘flexes’ its muscles against flex menace, our city will become ‘Flex City.’

‘Mysore’ will become an ‘Eyesore.’

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