‘How many more litres of blood?’: Madras High Court raps Tamil Nadu government over techie’s death 

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]OLLOWING the death of a 23-year-old Chennai woman in an accident after a large flex board fell on her, the Madras High Court on Friday slammed Tamil Nadu government for repeated violation of its orders against use of political banners and hoardings at the public places.

Maintaining that it was tired of passing multiple orders against illegal flex boards and hoardings by the political parties, Justice N Seshasayee asked the Advocate General during the hearing today, “How many more litres of human blood do you want to smear the roads with so that your bureaucrats can become sensitive?”

In the past, the Madras High Court, time and again, has passed several orders that outlawed the use of banners and hoardings by the political parties on roads and pavements.

On Thursday, an AIADMK party’s hoarding  come off lose and fell on a 23-year old a software engineer, Subhasri Ravi, after which she fell off her two-wheeler and was mowed down by a water tanker.

Several public interest litigation petitions have also been filed before the Madras High Court to interfere and direct the local authorities to prevent and remove such felonious banners.

The court had pulled up state government and regional political parties at several occasionfor flouting its orders against erecting banners and hoardings without authorised permission.

In 2017, the Madras High Court banned erection of hoardings of living persons and political parties along roads and pavements obstructing traffics and free movement of pedestrians.

In April 2018, the Court also took cognizant of a letter written by activist “traffic” KR Ramaswamy pointing out the inaction of authorities in removing banners placed by the AIADMK on the occasion of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s birth anniversary.

Despite the strict directions from the court, the state authorities failed to monitor and restrain errant political parties from erecting banners on roads and pathways.