Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government will now crack down on posters, banners and graffiti on its office premises. 

The Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) has recommended that the government should take stringent measures to ban the pasting of posters and writing graffiti on the walls of government offices.

Based on this recommendation, the heads of various government departments have sent out a circular to the offices coming under their control by asking them to take strict action against the defacement of government offices by putting up banners, posters and other communication material.

Such a step was initiated by the government after it was found that even the newly built offices were messed up by indiscriminate pasting of posters on walls  and by decorating the whole office premises by festoons.  Numerous complaints from the public also forced the government to act.

The recognised service organisations have been accorded sanction way back in 1994 for displaying campaign materials at allotted spaces in government offices. As per this rule, the office head has to allot a designated spot for the recognised service staff associations to keep special boards for displaying their campaign materials. But keeping posters and other advertisement materials in other places of the office is illegal.

It was also mentioned in the circular where to keep such boards. The government had issued another circular in 2010, explaining the matter in detail.

But overlooking all these directives and circulars, posters continue to be pasted and other publicity materials are put up at various places on the premises of government offices including at entrances.

The instruction that flags, boards and festoons should not be put up by blocking the main way of the office has been given scant regard. Posters and banners are seen everywhere at the main entrance and in the corridors of offices, making it difficult for the visiting public to even walk properly through the office premises.