MONOJIT MONDAL,OP
BHUBANESWAR: When the government is on a mission to promote the Smart-City concept in the capital, the slogan of a ‘clean and green city’ acquires added significance. But, the recently concluded student union polls in the city has turned the city uglier, with a profusion of graffiti on walls across the urban landscape presenting an ugly picture of the capital. Graffiti, a hand-drawn graphic or pictorial representation of a subject put on the public wall with the help of paint or other devices, allows people to express their views and opinion targeted at a larger audience. Though this has been used as a good tool for communication, the effect it leaves on the city walls is disastrous. “We are leaving in a time when youth are mostly influenced by foreign and in particular American culture.
However, the youth of today need to understand this, that everything copied from the western culture may not stand good for our community and customs. Graffiti is such a wrong tool in the hands of today’s youth. I believe, the youth should come up with
creative ideas rather than cultivating negatives influenced by the western culture and practices,” says Satrujeet Sahoo, area sales head, Coca Cola, who lives in Nayapally area. Graffiti drawn on the public property and city walls not only makes the city unclean but also gives a ghost-like look to the urban sprawls. It promotes a negative culture among the citizens and specifically the youth. It also raises serious questions on the effectiveness of the city administration. Worse, the cost involved in erasing the graffiti from walls is immense.
More often than not, these graffiti stick on the walls, and there will be no serious attempt to clean public walls, also due to the high costs involved. Graffiti at times hurts the sentiments of some communities and propagates negative messages to the wider public. “I think the youth needs to understand what is good graffiti and what is bad graffiti. What is drawn on the city wall is surely serving a purpose, but what bad effects it leaves behind is a matter of concern,” says Itishree, a teacher of Music at Utkal University.
“It really feels bad to watch the city walls been painted with all kinds of messages, it should not be the youth culture in our city. We are striving hard to attain all the pa
rameters of a Smart City here, and graffiti is unacceptable in the present scenario,” says Shamnath Panda, a businessman from CRP area here. But, who listens!
