‘Colour My City’ to restore defaced walls

The compound walls in Hubballi and Dharwad tell us a filthy tale of defacing them with posters and writings. For years, they have remained neglected and several plans for beautifying the city walls by the administration are biting the dust.

But here is some change. They may soon wear beautiful look and have paintings on them. The ‘Colour My City’, an online group of citizens of Hubballi, has now taken the initiative to restore the public and private walls.

By Amit S. Upadhye, Hubballi

A survey has been taken up on 10 major roads in Hubballi, where the beautification of walls will take place soon after monsoon.

“In the first phase, we shall cover major streets of Hubballi and in the next phase, the roads of Dharwad will be covered. Though there are strict rules against pasting posters on walls, nobody really cares,” said Kiran Uppar, the lead organising member of Colour My City.

To begin with, the walls and their conditions are being documented by the team on Gokul Road, around Swimming Pool complex, Gokul Road, Railway Station Road and Lamington Road. In the coming days, the group will be reaching out to the local and renowned artists from the region to invite them to paint the walls.

“We are planning to bring in about 200 artists from Hubballi-Dharwad and other parts of north Karnataka. Some of the famous artists from Hubballi have already expressed their willingness to participate in the initiative,” Uppar said.

The civic experts of twin cities have long been demanding to book the film advertisers and companies, who deface the public walls.“The film advertisers must be booked for defacing the walls on regular basis. Despite several warnings, they continue to paste posters during night hours. Once the police take action on the film advertising agencies, the menace can be minimised,” said an expert.