Sharjah drive to remove bills, posters from walls

Sharjah drive to remove bills, posters from walls
08 October 2011

SHARJAH — The Sharjah Municipality, as part of its plan to maintain the aesthetic view of the emirate, has intensified a campaign to remove bills and posters from walls as well as unauthorised signboards that have been put up without permission from the civic body or the Department of Economy (Sharjah DED).

Municipal officials said that it has been noticed that thousands of paper posters are stuck on the walls of buildings, roadside telephone booths and shopping areas advertising room space, tuition classes, sale of furniture, house shifting services and job vacancies.

Sultan Al Mulla, Director-General of the municipality, said the campaign to remove such ads are continuing in various parts of the emirate.

Such advertisements and billboards are allowed under certain conditions, including the stipulation that the ads should be consistent with the culture and tradition of the UAE society and Islamic teachings. The material in Arabic should be written perfectly, with correct spelling and grammar. The ads should be put up in places that do not affect public view of the city. They must be displayed for a determined period and the owner should remove them after that period. Otherwise, the owners would face fines.

Al Mulla urged the public to ignore such bills and posters for their safety as the police and municipality cannot track down the owners of all these ads. These notices and posters could be used for luring people into some crimes or cheat them.

At the same time, residents seemed to be more concerned about the pamphlets or slips of restaurants, cafeterias, groceries, pesticide companies, AC maintenance servicing units, computer repairing shops and availability of maids dropped under the doors of apartments.

Mohammed Amin, employee of a government department in Sharjah, said those who drop such slips are jobless and staying illegally in the country and trying to make money by any means.

The authority concerned should take action to end such practices and prevent people from sticking bills on the walls at night. “I caught some people sticking bills on the walls of my building in the middle of the night and I notified the authority,” Amin said.

Comment from Prathap G Sharjah : India must do the same.