Most residents of the city of Colombo today would not consider that it is a ‘beautiful’ city. But for those whose memories run back to five to six decades, it had its olde world and quaint charm. Most buildings had only a ground floor and only a few had more than one storey. Pedestrians and commuters than had an unimpeded view of the natural surroundings with few man- made structures to interrupt their view.

Today the city is crowded with tall buildings built in an ad hoc manner with responsible authorities doing little to see that they are built on an approved town plan. Residents living on the ground floor level are deprived of free flowing air, sometimes sunlight and often distant vision required to rest their tired eyes. To compound this problem is the construction and placement of billboards. Some are atop tall buildings while others are on tall iron frames spanning many square metres. Some billboards placed contiguously obstruct the view over many metres. Even wide open spaces cannot permit unimpeded view because of the widespread culture of advertisement through billboards. How often we find the view of lush green paddy fields obstructed or marred by billboards? Even trees have not been spared as often one sees advertisements nailed on to trees thus vandalizing them and making them eyesores.

When allowing display of these structures, one wonders whether the rights of the individual have been given any consideration. Aren’t the citizens entitled to unfettered uncluttered view of the natural surroundings and environment when walking or travelling? Isn’t there an infringement of citizens’ rights when they are compelled to look at monstrous billboards, more often carrying erotically suggestive advertisements, which may have no relevance or meaning to one’s environs? Why should one be subjected to unsolicited or uncalled for violation of one’s fundamental rights to see anything only if one wishes to and not when thrust upon the individual?

Whether they are aesthetically pleasing, distracting or downright indecent or annoying is not the issue, but the physical obstruction to one’s vision. Though the local bodies earn some income on granting licences for these structures,I feel that there should be stricter control over their construction and placement. Some have come down during thunder- storms and injured pedestrians because of poor construction. If such control is not possible, no permission should be granted for the construction of new ones and the existing ones too phased out over a specified period of time when their licences become invalid. I have no doubt that the majority of citizens would opt not to have them displayed at junctions and roadsides as they distract vehicle drivers and possibly could cause accidents. Advertisement on TV and the printed media alone would suffice to keep the public informed about the advertisers goods and services!