Hyderabad: Similar to the walls of Seven Tombs and Golconda, ‘LOVE HYD’ a sculpture at Tank Bund which was supposedly installed to beautify the city of Nawabs from Tax payers money became a scribbling pad for Love Birds.
The red and white sculpture installed four months ago is now filled with love messages with countless heart shaped boxes with names and initials of names.
City police and GHMC are blaming each other for not being able to maintain the sculpture.
“It is the GHMC’s responsibility to maintain that installation and we have no direct authority to have dedicated personnel just to police that spot. The GHMC, for its part, has deployed some watchmen but they are irregular and when they are present the public do not listen to them. So now we’ve asked them to note down the vehicle numbers of those people who do mischief at that place and pass it on to us. So far we haven’t received any. But if caught, we will not hesitate to take action against them as per the law,” said M Prasad, SI Gandhinagar.
The “Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act,” 1984 states:
“Whoever commits mischief by doing any act with respect to any public property shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years and with fine.”
“These random scribblings hurt Hyderabad’s image. It just reflects the lack civic sense among the public at large. While policing can be a stop-gap measure, what’s really needed is for people themselves to take ownership of public property. Citizens who care should be more vocal, and act when they see such acts of transgression, instead of being mute spectators. The solution for this lies in awareness, inculcating civic sense and with a certain sense of pride in the city,” said Gopala Krishna, who conducts guided tours in and around the city.